


Saving Valeria

by newtslimpxx



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Enemies to Lovers, F/M, Gryffindor/Slytherin Inter-House Relationships, Hogwarts, Lily Evans Potter & Severus Snape Friendship, Marauders, Marauders Era (Harry Potter), Slytherin
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-23
Updated: 2021-02-23
Packaged: 2021-03-13 17:33:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 28,839
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29654829
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/newtslimpxx/pseuds/newtslimpxx
Summary: Valeria was drowning and she was far too under for anyone to save her. There was an imminent war that was looming over the wizarding world and soon enough, she would have to pick a side to fight on before the choice was already made for her. And for once, her walls of false pretences wouldn't be able to help her but that was before her adversary began to chip at those said walls. James was a centrepiece. When he entered a room, all attention was drawn to him and he basked in it. The boy was charismatic but overly egotistical and this vital piece of him proved to be his harmatia. And it was the only hinderance between him and the girl he loved. And all of his combined assets had girls flocking at his feet, begging for a chance but he would only learn to look in the direction of a girl he would never look at twice. Darkness was rising around them and they would have to fight in a war they had no interest of fighting in but in a time so ominous, was it so bad to hold onto their glimmer of light and escape the cold clutches of their reality?
Relationships: James Potter/Original Female Character(s), Marauders & Lily Evans Potter
Comments: 2
Kudos: 4





	1. the montalvos

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello :)
> 
> this work was actually orginally posted on wattpad before i put it on here. but the formatting is a little different. i hope new readers enjoy!

THE MONTALVOS. Their name held meaning – they were powerful, influential and extremely prosperous, arguably one of the richest families in the Wizarding World. All over England, people fawned over them. The family originated from the poorest of slums in Puerto Rico and boarding the ship to England in 1867 was the best decision Alejandro had made for his family and for all the generations to come. And from that moment, their legacy began. For every Montalvo member to ever go to Hogwarts were sorted into the house of Ravenclaw. With their astute nature and intelligence, they made a name for themselves and they were able to do wonders with their unprecedented knowledge. Their family became revolutionary. Many of the key parts of the Wizarding Society were created or produced by past Montalvos. As the war loomed over all wizards, the family remained nonaligned to either side of the turmoil, at least that was what they wanted others to think. But most knew of their links with certain families that were enthusiasts of he who shall not be named. 

SEBASTIAN LUIS MONTALVO. An only child of his parents was one of great fortune and success. He was of high ambition and he had a very clear plan of what he wanted his life to be like from a very young age and now he was content. It was no wonder he became England's finest Healer. His forward thinking and new methods brought him to the top. Sebastian had a beautiful face structure with a defined jawline which was now adorned by a well-groomed beard, his hair shined brilliantly and was well complimented by his brown eyes and golden tan. And in the years of his youth, his heart became consumed with love for another, so much that it led him to marry her.

KARINA DANIELLE MONTALVO. Formerly known as Greengrass. She was brought up in a Slytherin elitist household, she hated every second of it and was able to finally escape their clutches when she was the first in her family to be sorted into Ravenclaw – breaking their precious chain. Karina had striking characteristics – a set of luscious brown locks, framing her pale heart shaped face. She held a lighter shade of brown in her eye colour than her husband. Karina excelled in potions when at school and so carried on with her talent to become an accomplished potioneer.

VALERIA CASSIOPEIA MONTALVO. Her eyes were the glimmering colour of emerald, sparkling in the light of the morning sun like a fresh sheen of morning dew; they were an unequivocal difference and probably the most interesting thing about her. A black mass of curls framed her tanned face. She was the black sheep of the family. Valeria was the very first of the Montalvo family to be sorted into the Slytherin House – breaking their chain of precious Ravenclaws. However, her disgraced betrayal was kept within the four walls of the Manor. Outside of it, they acted like a perfect family and as if her house sorting didn't change anything. But it did, it really did. From then on out, she was neglected by her parents, they treated her as if she was dirt underneath their shoes. They ignored their daughter days on end, then they would abuse and insult and hurt her in a way a parent should never to a child – it was a never-ending cycle for Valeria. She often found solace in her twin brother and in her growing obsession of The Beatles. But that didn't stop her from perfecting the façade that she had put all around her. She was untouchable. Valeria had learnt ( the hard way ) that building up walls was the only way that she could be protected.

KAIRI SEBASTIAN MONTALVO. He was the perfect son. The favourite child. In his parents' eyes he could do no wrong, he couldn't disappoint them like his twin sister. Kairi was very much his father's son; they had the same tan skin and brown eyes. His hair was unruly and a little shaggy but he claimed that was how he liked it. He was several inches taller than Valeria, nearing the end of the five foot spectrum. Upon entering Hogwarts, he very quickly became popular, girls fawned over his good looks and this athleticism. Kairi was the only one who still treated Valeria as family – she was his best friend. Without their parents knowing, he would often sneak into her room and share the gifts their parents had showered him with. For their birthday, once he had finished celebrating with their parents, he took her out to wherever she wanted and he also bought her presents. He also accompanied her to Diagon Alley to get her school supplies and stuff because they always went without her. He became her only family.

ADRIANA KARINA MONTALVO. The eldest child of Sebastian and Karina. Born nine years earlier than her younger siblings, Adriana spent quite a fraction of her childhood alone. And over the years she had learnt to become independent and responsible. The eldest daughter had grown into a well-respected Auror and she was the perfect daughter. But that was all before eight years ago, when she disappeared without a trace. No one had seen or heard from Adriana ever since. Slowly, her existence drifted away from the lives of her family. Her parents were ashamed and disconcerted that she would do such a thing – lately, it seemed that the Montalvo daughters couldn't do anything to please their parents. They worked hard to forget about her, they erased her from all family portraits and childhood photos. All of her belongings around the house disappeared, her room was turned into another guest bedroom. The once Lilac walls transformed into a royal blue as the room removed evidence of anyone residing in it. Adriana soon became a strained memory and after a brief recollection, she would once a again disappear.


	2. 01. incendio

Saturday 23rd August 1976

THE BALL OF GAS LOCATED IN SPACE THAT CONSISTED OF MORE THAN SEVEN BILLION PEOPLE INHABITING THE PLANET WAS NOT PERFECT.

If anything, it was corrupt. Devastations occurred daily. The humanised earth was infested with floods, earthquakes, hunger, war, discrimination and otherworldly horrors. To put it simply – it was overrun with moral and natural evil.

Yes, all of those acts were ghastly and they caused people to feel a type of way that would earn sympathy. But other problems were pushed to the back of people's minds. It was present but it was often overlooked, but that didn't make the problem any less minuscule. No. In the same way that natural and moral evil was fought against, injustice was also fought. Blood status had fundamental control over how the Wizarding World was driven. Those who were pure, sat comfortably at the top of the hierarchy, they had all the riches and power. Those who were muggleborns or other creatures ( half-breeds, giants, merfolk, elves etc. ) were at the bottom and more often than not, they were seen as below and as inhumane. The segregation was horrific really.

Of course, as time went on, things did begin to change. Almost everyone did begin to treat others the same – almost. There were still wizards and witches who looked down on those who were not of pure blood, they were still prejudiced against other magic folks.

It was another imperfection that the world had created for itself.

A cloud of grey and dull smoke floated in the air and conflicted with the clear, blue sky. A hand reached up and clawed at the smoke, and as a result, the intoxicating, dense particles grew further apart in the atmosphere until they were no longer present in the clean air.

Valeria Cassiopeia Montalvo once again brought the ignited cigarette to her lips, she inhaled the tar substance before tilting her head back and drawing it out once more – like she had been doing for the last couple minutes. She watched as a grey smoke cloud formed and in a matter of seconds dissipated. It was a nasty habit that the teenager had picked up a while ago. The adolescent had tried to give up 'the stick of foretold death' on many accounts but while her mind thought of the one million excuses to let it go, her lungs ached for the burning warmth of the nicotine to engulf themselves in. It is a mental battle, her fingers itch for the cigarette and after the mindless stalling she concedes to the familiar feeling of defeat and numbness gives way to her body. She's the puppet and the off branded cigarettes she owned were the master.

Valeria didn't have an addiction to nicotine, per se but more of a consolation. It was more of an escape; as a growing teenager, she felt the pressure, stress and expectations that were placed on her shoulders.

Valeria didn't like to complain but being a teenager was a burden. It was difficult – society either expected too little or too much from you, there was no solidity. With being a teenager came the constant pressure, the ridicule and the dismissal. Teenagers, more than any other age group felt the need to keep up appearances to please those around them. And given her situation, Valeria felt this more than anything.

Ever since four years ago, Valeria Montalvo was neglected by her parents. The first signs she picked up on was when after being at Hogwarts for a whole week, she had yet to receive a letter from her parents. The young girl, on the very first night had written to her parents, while her twin brother had written a couple of days later but somehow, they had written to him and not her. For days, she had wondered if her letter had gotten mixed up or if they simply didn't get it, so she wrote another letter and two weeks later there was no reply.

For the months leading up to the Christmas holidays, there was a small pit of dread at the bottom of her stomach. Valeria tried to push the negative intrusive thoughts away from her mind – claiming that they were her parents and how they would never do such things. But she couldn't have been further from the truth – when the twins arrived at King cross Station that Christmas, her parents had tackled her brother into a hug while their eyes merely passed through Valeria. Barley acknowledging her and from that moment – she knew that her family would never be the same.

Being sorted into Ravenclaw was a big deal for the Montalvos, being sorted into the house meant that they were a true Montalvo and Valeria failed to do so when she was sorted into Slytherin. She had failed at being a Montalvo and her parents didn't let her forget it. From their harsh words, neglect and the physical pain inflicted on her, Valeria had to endure it all.

And for the sole reason of being sorted into Slytherin – people steered clear from the female Montalvo twin. It was something that she believed to be incredibly stupid. While being in Hogwarts over the years, Valeria learnt that Slytherin wasn't actually all that bad, it wasn't evil as everyone made it out to be. The majority of the house were decent people who had been misjudged. And because of that Valeria showed house pride; she wore her uniform with her head held high, she supported their quidditch matches and she had Slytherin colours represented in her room. People rarely approached her due to her house and also because she was known to hex people. It wasn't for no reason – at least that is was Valeria believed. She only hexed other students when they annoyed her, and people got on her nerves a lot of the time. But really, it was a form of retaliation; after being ignored on a regular basis in her home, she took to letting out her frustration on those around her.

No matter how hard she tried to show that Slytherin wasn't full of evil characters – her parents refused to understand. Because of that, they ignored their youngest daughter's existence around the house, they were still normal parents, just not towards her. Kairi was their prized son who they adored and Valeria only got in the way. He was praised over every little thing he did; when Kairi became captain of the Ravenclaw quidditch team, they took him out for a fancy dinner while Valeria was locked in her room. However, last summer, when they were notified that Valeria was to be a Prefect, they didn't even bat an eyelid. They presented gifts to Kairi when he had passed his OWLS with As and they and ripped up her report card which consisted of mostly Os and threw it in the fire.

"You should really stop doing that!" The voice was gentle but there was a sense of sternness within it. "It isn't good for you."

Valeria couldn't help but roll her eyes at the good-doer. Lily Evans was also laid on the green grass beside the Montalvo ( though at a safe distance as she wasn't fond of the smell of cigarettes ). Both girls were considerably content with laying on the area of green and staring up at the sky. The familiar tune of Ticket to Ride played from Valeria's portable Walkman in the background.

Her brother had bought it for her a year ago when he discovered that she was listening to the muggle band, The Beatles was her guilty pleasure. Valeria was of course, ashamed – as any other respected Pureblood when engaging in anything muggle wise. She had tried to stop listening to the band altogether but she found herself coming back to it like a newborn baby craving the attention of its mother – it was her kryptonite.

Valeria had become quite fond of their music when she had heard one of her fellow classmates singing along the tune of of Come Together – at the time all she did was give them a glare full of hate and they immediately quietened down. And was later on when she found the same song to be constantly replaying in her mind and courtesy of one of her brother's friends, he told her the name of the song and the group that sang it. Valeria recalled her exact thoughts: what the hell are the Beatles? Looking back on it now, it only made her laugh.

And now, she loved them with her heart – even though she had never seen them ( with the exception of cassette covers and posters ) and even though they had broken up since '70. Valeria often wished that they were still together so that they could continue producing revolutionary and heart-warming music but she knew those thoughts were far fetched.

"It shouldn't matter to you," she gave a mellow shrug. "It is my lungs that are withstanding the damage after all." Valeria drawled, there was a slight haughtiness to her words.

Lily Evans was not a girl Valeria would want to be seen within the public, nevertheless befriend. As a Slytherin, she had standards and a reputation to uphold, getting comfortable with a muggleborn certainly didn't fit in with the objective. At school, she surrounded herself with other Pureblood acquaintances; those who acquainted the same beliefs and those who were on the same path of life.

As much as her parents loved to preach how different they were from certain elitist households –they weren't. They made it seem like they didn't discriminate, that they were fond all wizarding backgrounds and such however, they were liars. They were skilled enough to not let their true colours show but they were humans, and sometimes, they let their facade slip. Her parents never said anything, but over the years, Valeria noticed that whenever they were in the presence of someone below a Pureblood, they would turn up their noses and would grow more boastful as they flaunted whatever they could.

Set to follow in their example, Kairi and Valeria picked up a couple of things from them. During the twins' younger years, they didn't really think much of it, it wasn't until Hogwarts had widened their prospect. Kairi was quick to recognise the errors of his ways as his housemates helped him believe what was right – it wasn't quite the same for his twin. Valeria was put in the house where she was surrounded by students who had similar or stronger beliefs. They mercilessly poisoned her mind and dragged them down with her, there was nothing that Kairi would say to change her way of thinking. 

As much as Slytherins were believed to do so, Valeria didn't hate all things muggle. She felt as if all this prejudice and hatred was wasted, muggles did have a purpose – they kept the wizarding world from dying out. And for that sole reason, she believed that muggleborns did have the right to practice magic like any other witch or wizard. But her condoning ended there for she felt that muggleborns and half-bloods were beneath her, their blood was muddied and therefore they were inferior. Valeria had conferred her opinions with some of her peers and most of them had agreed with to an extent but they always disagreed with wizarding world needing the muggles in order to survive ( considering they were all Slytherin elitists ). So, in conclusion, Valeria didn't necessarily have a problem and tried to treat others with respect, regardless of their blood. And so, when she spent time with Lily, the dark-haired girl ignored the fact that she was a muggleborn.

"Please," Valeria sighed as she sat up, Lily's eyes already on her. She held her stare for a moment and after losing their silent battle, Valeria complied. She took one last, long drag of the cigarette, and muttered the incendio spell and the stick burst into flames. It landed on the ground in a heap of ash which was then carried along as it was picked up by the light winds. Lily smiled in content and fell back onto the soft grass, and Valeria followed suit.

"She's got a ticket to ride," Valeria subconsciously softly sang to the chorus of the song. Lily looked over to her and before she knew it, she was doing the same, "she's got a ticket to ride, but she don't care." Their soft, harmonious blended together, their minds not thinking of anything in particular as they sang. 

It would be a total understatement to say that Lily was surprised to hear that the Slytherin was a Beatles fan, she didn't quite believe it at first but when she received a menacing threat, she knew to take the Montalvo completely seriously. It was strange at first, to see Valeria enjoying the muggle band and it was even stranger when she knew next to nothing about them. Lily, didn't mind them but she didn't really listen to their music – but she probably knew a lot more than Valeria. And so, Lily took it upon herself to drag her new acquaintance into muggle town and to a little shop that sold Beatles records and merchandise as well as for other artists.

At the end of their trip, Valeria had managed to bargain two posters for her bedroom walls, a couple of magazines, a biography of the fab four and various other simple merchandise. It was a successful trip in every aspect – the things that Valeria had bought that day still gathered in her room and she must've read the biography a handful of times, eager to learn every fact about them and imprint it in her mind.

If they were being totally honest, the two girls had no idea how this friendship came about, if they could even call it that. At most they were acquaintances. A Slytherin and a Gryffindor willingly talking to each other was extremely rare, Valeria would've never in a million dreams thought that she would be friendly to a Gryffindor. She had no reason to; while being in the castle she had judged them as being boisterous, annoying characters who paraded like they owned the place.

At school, she was the top of her class along with Lily and Remus Lupin the Slytherin knew it wasn't a competition but Valeria couldn't help but treat it as it was – at the end of the day, it was every man for themselves. Valeria thought Lily Evans was a pretentious know-it-all who was all fake smiles. Lily saw Valeria Montalvo as someone who was ruthless and was willing to do anything to stay at the top.

Seeing as though she had read all the books she had at home ( that interested her ) and she was no longer at school to visit their library – Valeria did something she had never done; she went into town. The Montalvo's took residence in Falmouth, a village in Cornwall where magic and muggle folk lived. Her parents thought it would be a suitable place to be hidden in plain sight, their manor was surrounded with grassy plains which provided privacy and protection. Whenever she needed supplies, she always went to Diagon alley, she had never really been amongst muggles beforehand.

Valeria had entered the placid athenaeum and noticed that only a scarce amount of people littered about. This library was quite modern compared to the one she had at home and at Hogwarts and this is what intrigued her.

When the young Montalvo had entered the library, she didn't know where to start, she had never read a book about muggles. Valeria hadn't a clue about their world, her mind didn't know what to expect. In the end, she chose a book at each corner of the library before settling onto a table between shelves. It wasn't until she was putting the books back onto the shelves did she notice the golden girl of Hogwarts.

It was quite an awkward encounter, really. Lily had stopped shifting through the bookshelf and her eyes widened as she stared at Valeria. Her pale green eyes stilled as they were fixated on the Pureblood, she didn't quite know how to react. She was the last person she would ever expect to be found in a muggle library. But before she even thought of reacting, the Slytherin sneered at her as if daring her to say anything and effectively intimidating her. Lily silently watched as she stalked away, curiosity about the Montalvo girl clouding her thoughts.

For the next couple of days, the two acknowledged each other but neither made a move to take it a step further. A week had passed when their relationship became existent. Like she had been doing since she first came, Valeria selected a book and sat at her regular table.

The dark-haired girl was so consumed by her book that she took no note of a redhead girl approaching her table until she had occupied the seat opposite her. Naturally, she was startled and so she peered over the book to see the familiar Gryffindor girl. Valeria showed no sign of a response as she kept her expression monotone – her eyes narrowing the slightest. Like they had the past week, the two girls read in silence, the art of literature drawing them into their separate worlds.

Hours later, the Slytherin girl grew bored and was ready to venture back home. She packed away her belongings and the red-head opposite followed suite. This small action caused irritation to slowly rise up in Valeria but she said nothing, giving the Evans girl one last glance she turned on her heel to leave the muggle library that she had slowly grown fond of.

However, Valeria was only able to reach halfway before a familiar, light voice called to her, "wait." And having no idea what compelled her to do so, she did. She cautiously turned back to face the bright muggleborn witch and raised an expectant brow, Lily took this as a sign to continue, "t-there's a great ice cream place not far from here," she proceeded with a hopeful smile. Valeria noticed as she awkwardly played with her fingers and shifted on foot to foot, "d-do you want to check it out?"

And before she even knew what she was doing, the words were already tumbling from her mouth, "sure."

Thinking about it now, it was something that she wouldn't ever admit out loud – but she was glad that she had agreed to go with her, only if it only seemed small at the time. Valeria, of course, didn't know that this simple answer would set a chain of events that would assuredly change her life.

Sudden movement brought Valeria from her reverie and she callously glanced at the girl next to her. Lily sat up abruptly, her soft locks falling over her face as she inspected the mechanical instrument on her wrist. "It's nearly five o'clock," with no further comment she began to collect herself and picked herself from the ground, cleaning bits of grass and mud from her summer dress.

It was a moment before Lily finally turned back to her, "I should probably get going home now." It looked like she wanted to say something else but she refrained herself from doing so.

"Okay," Valeria told her simply, she made no move to get up.

Lily raised her brows as if it wasn't the response she was expecting; she fixed the brown bag that was hanging from her shoulder. She opened her mouth, slightly hesitant, "unless... Do you want to come over? I'm sure my parents wouldn't mind."

Valeria wasn't at all surprised as she had been expecting it since their time together. Of course, a muggleborn would want to please and impress a Pureblood – whether to prove their worth or their equality. But Valeria simply hadn't the time for stunts such as those; she masked her incredulous expression as she shook her head.

"Thanks, for the offer. But I'm good, really. I should probably start heading back home, too," she said as she sat up on the soft grass.

Lily nodded with slight disappointment, but Valeria paid no mind as she began to stuff her Walkman into her bag and slung it over her shoulder, "let me at least walk you back to town," Lily suggested.

Valeria pursed her lips as she wiped at the grass cuttings that sparsely covered her skirt and clung to her tights. It was a rather hot out, which wasn't surprising considering it had been one of the hottest summers in Britain for a while. But the high degrees in temperature didn't stop Valeria from opting to wear a plaid skirt, thick black tights and a thin jade coloured sweater. She'd been told on many occasions that her sense of style ( when not swamped in her wizarding robes ) resembled a preppy, bookish private-school attendee, which she wasn't at all fussed about.

Her gaze landed back on the redhead who looked at her expectantly, biting on her lip as she expected an answer. "Okay," her tone was flat and indifferent. The only reason she'd agreed to let the jubilant redhead walk with her was because she wasn't quite yet used to muggle Britain and their weird means of travel. Lily grinned happily but Valeria was already beginning to walk away, she caught up and they walked in line, time to time, she noticed the Slytherin glance at her from the corner of her eye. And Merlin, she realised just how different they were from each other.

Lily couldn't help but notice that Valeria carried herself in an aristocratic manner, her strides were long and elegant, moving which such grace that Lily wondered if she was part swan. And magic practically oozed from her non-existent pores, she didn't know if it was because she'd been brought up with it or because she came from a long line of Purebloods. But, it left her completely entranced every time she performed magic; whether it was a simple wandless summoning spell or intricate protective charm. 

And after spending a lot of time with her during the summer, Lily began to grow jealous over Valeria's looks. Her eyes were green, but unlike her own, they were encaptivating and Lily often lost herself in those enriching swirls of emerald. Her dark curls were so elegantly splayed on her head, they looked like they were professionally done everyday ( which they most likely were ). Her tanned skin was smooth and without blemishes or any imperfections and ever time she looked at her, she cursed the universe because it really did have favourites.

She thought about herself on the other hand. She was nothing like the ethereal being gliding beside her but rather mundane and boring. Lily was taller than most of the girls her age, not by a lot but enough for it to be considered as an oddity. Her knees were knobbly and legs ( like the rest of her body ) was prone to bruising easily, like an aging peach. Her hair was too red, she believed. Unlike the beautiful, mature women she admired in the magazines whose was of beautiful light strawberry blonde. Her hair was like fire, too hard on the eyes, too bright, to flamboyant and it drew unnecessary attention to her. As a child, there wasn't much to do in the quiet and boring town she grew up in but play outside and make her own fun. And at the expense of that fun all kinds of bruises, scrapes and cuts appeared on her body but she grew out of that and she now read for fun. Going to Hogwarts was the most interesting having happened in her life and even then it was boring compared to the likes of Valeria Montalvo.

"So," her voice disturbed the tranquillity between them. "What will you do when you return home?"

Valeria barely glanced at her, "most likely nothing."

"Oh, you don't have any plans?"

"I'm sure I already said that," Valeria rolled her eyes. "My parents are still at work and my brother is with his friends."

Lily frowned, imagining Valeria bored out of her mind in that large manor, but then grew a small smile. "Aha! I could come over and we could I don't know... hang out," she mumbled towards the end as she could feel Valeria's burning gaze on her.

A few seconds of silence passed, before Valeria replied with a curt, "no." Lily's shoulders deflated and she looked to the ground. "But maybe some other time," the redhead's gaze whipped up, quickly. Valeria's expression remained passive but was there was the slight furrows in her eyebrows, as if even she were surprised by her own words.

Lily didn't give her any time to correct herself or change her mind when she answered, "yes, I'd love that very much." Valeria didn't respond.

The two of them walked into town, their journey being far from silent as Lily incessantly chatted away, everything about anything and only stopping to ask Valeria a question which she responded with the bare minimum of words, but the former didn't care, she was just glad she was actually listening to her. And in the space of their twenty minute walk, Valeria learned that Lily hated spicy food and that it would make her eyes watery and her cheeks puffy and red. That she needed at least two cups of coffee in the morning before she could talk to anyone and get anything done, she loved the rain and the cool refreshing droplets falling on her, she was a wholehearted feminist, and she had a love-hate relationship with her sister, ( it was more hate ). For the most part, Valeria stayed silent, considering Lily's words and keeping her opinions to herself.

Once they arrived into town, Lily showed Valeria into a dingy and rundown café. An odd and foul smell wafted through her nose and Valeria scrunched up her nose upon entering and turned up her chin. Lily rolled her eyes at her typical Pureblood behaviour but guided her in, anyway. The café was small but lively as nearly every table was occupied, and waiters rushed about with orders. Upon closer inspection, she noticed that the majority of the customers were doted in wizarding robes and she notices various cakes and drinks floating about mid-air.

Her attention focused onto Lily again once more when she spoke, "only wizard folk can see this and enter, there's a floo network in the back, you can use it to get home." Valeria followed her towards the back end of the café and they stopped before a door. There was a small window but the room on the other side was dark.

Lily gently knocked onto the door and Valeria watched expectantly. Lily said nothing but waited patiently. A few seconds later, the door swung open and a skinny tall man appeared. His hair was dark but slowly growing silver in some areas, he had a swirly moustache joining to a well-groomed beard. His expression was warm and friendly as he peered down at the two girls.

"Xavier," Lily announced his name with a grin. "Can we use the floo network? She needs to get home," She bumped her him with Valeria's who glared at her.

The said man grinned and gestured for them to follow him. "Right this way," he led them into the small dim room. And at the far side of the room stood the lone fireplace, Xavier remained by the door and the two girls approached.

Before Valeria could do anything, Lily turned to her. She directed one of her twinkling smiles, ones that made Valeria sick. "I hope you make it home safe and I had fun today."

Valeria took a second before answering, "yeah me too." She was being honest. Today had been eventful, certainly more interesting than what she would've done if she was stuck at home. Then, she reached for a handful of floo powder and threw it into the fireplace, "Montalvo Manor!" She exclaimed before walking through.

The last thing she heard before disappearing through were Lily's cries of "Goodbye Val! I'll see you soon!"


	3. 02. accio

Monday 1st September 1976

IT WAS THE FIRST DAY OF THE NINTH MONTH.

It was the end of a long summer and the birth of autumn. That morning, the Montalvo family had reached the Kings Cross train station. The station was strenuous, filled with muggles as well as the odd wizard family. Kairi and Valeria led their parents through the multitudes of bustling crowds, gripping onto their trolleys tightly.

A flurry of colours whipped past them as they moved, Valeria only heard snippets of conversations; most of them consisting of their tardiness, the train or their jobs. She caught sight of a man who was talking rather loudly, holding a strange device to his ear: it was a cream coloured box that had a long metal stick coming from it, something that she'd seen many muggles in possession with.

The family kept their eyes on the number of the platform that hung high above their heads. The black bold print of number increased and they came to stop when they reached between nine and ten. The infamous, archway in ageing and crumbling bricks stood proudly. Sebastian and Karina were back at the point they had come to so many times that they had lost count – from their own years of attending Hogwarts to accompanying their eldest daughter and now their youngest.

Once they made sure that no one was looking their way, Kairi entered through the gateway first and the rest of his family followed and they were once against on the accustomed platform.

On the railway stood the scarlet steam train that already held many students. Subconsciously a smile made its way onto the teen's face. There were students in every direction: some already on the train grinning and waving to family members, some were finding their friends, others stood nervously on the platform with their parents bidding goodbye. But they all held one thing in common – they were all wizards. And that sole factor caused an immense wave of comfort to settle over Valeria.

"Are you looking for someone?" Kairi asked from beside her. Ever since the twins had arrived on the platform, he noticed Valeria's eyes dancing around, as if searching for something – or someone. Her glimmering emerald eyes went from on area of wizards to another, it had even gotten to the point where she stood on the balls of her feet in hopes of getting a better look.

"Huh?" Valeria asked, she balanced herself back on her feet and straightened herself out. Then she processed his words, "oh no, it's nothing," she rapidly shook her head. And at once, she pushed back the thoughts of the redhead she hadn't seen in week after seeing her nearly everyday over the summer.

Valeria tried to stop thinking about it, their small friendship that they had created over the past couple of weeks was over – it couldn't continue now they were back at school. And the reason was simple; she was a Slytherin and Lily was a Gryffindor, their friendship wouldn't last within the school walls. They were in rival houses and surely that would lead to their downfall, eventually the pride and loyalty they had for their houses would get in the way and it would clash.

In the midst of the wizarding robes that some of the Purebloods were sporting and all the 70s muggle fashion trends that had slowly infiltrated into the wizarding word ( brightly coloured shirts and blouses, bell-bottoms, miniskirts and crazy permed hair ) Valeria thought it was best to stick to her all comfortable wear of black Dr. Marten's, a simple black long-sleeved dressed she wore with tights and a dark emerald wizarding cloak with a silver brooch of a snake.

The twins waited for their parents to show ( Kairi was doing the waiting and Valeria kept him company ). To be honest, she really had no idea why she was still there and not already approaching the train to board. But maybe it was because she was naïve to think that some part of them would still want to see their daughter off to school. But much to her chagrin, the result was always the same, she was always left disappointed and then she would pretend it didn't affect her in any way and move on in her life. Valeria's small glimmer of hope destructed when their parents had reached the two of them, their impassive and cold eyes skimmed over their daughter with looks of disdain before settling on their son.

As Sebastian praised Kairi and wished him good luck over his school work and Quidditch, Valeria turned away, her eyes burned with tears that she refused to let fall. Her breath was hitched as she looked to the ground in utter dismay but it was only seconds before her façade was back up. Valeria scowled as her glowering eyes scanned the busy platform, looking for a quick escape. Coincidentally, her emerald eyes met pale green ones. Lily was staring back at the Slytherin, on her face she wore a bright welcoming grin. Valeria held her stare moment longer, an aloof expression overtook her features as she turned up her nose and turned away. She didn't miss the offending nature Lily took by her action as she walked away.

Sebastian and Karina didn't notice as their daughter walked away from them.

Students in the younger years steered clear of her path once they saw the Slytherin Prefect and the cold sneer on her face, Valeria inwardly smirked as walked past them. She made her way to the luggage compartment and once it had safely been loaded, she started to make her way to board the train. Her hand had only grabbed the hand rail when she was barged out of the way, she nearly lost her footing but she quickly managed to catch herself.

Valeria didn't waste any time and whipped her head around to face the culprit and her glare hardened when it landed on James Potter. He looked at her with crinkled eyes and a arrogant grin across his face. His signature ebony hair was voluminous and sat messily tousled on his head, his jawline and cheekbones were perfectly chiselled. His hazel eyes reminded Valeria of new spring growth, they were encapsulating — honey infusing with the gentle green, they swirled together as if moss creeping over rich soil, his lips were pulled into a shit-eating grin ( one that Valeria had become very accustomed to ) and a deep dimple adorned his right cheek, Valeria had come to notice it after glaring at his egotistical face so much over the years.

Today he was dressed in a nonchalant red sweater and denim washed out jeans, that he easily managed to pull off. James Potter was certainly good looking, Valeria had to begrudgingly admit that to herself. But she would never stoop to his level and give him the satisfaction of looking at him in such a manner. Valeria thought that without his stupid smirk adorning his face, or the constant ruffled up hair, or the golden snitch he always carried everywhere, he would be ten times charming. Merlin, he would be almost perfection if he never even opened his goddamn mouth, oh what a perfect life that would be — a life without the insolence of James Potter.

He was accompanied by his three other accessories but Valeria paid no mind to them. Valeria focused her scowl on James, "Potter," she spat, her lips downturned with her chin slightly jutted up in the air. "I still see you have your head still shoved up your arse," she smirked as she folded her arms over her chest.

She noticed his hazel eyes flicker towards her chest area before quickly flicking to her face, a glower overtaking his usually ever-present smirk.

"You smell something unpleasant, Montalvo?" a lazy voice spoke from beside him. "What, you finally caught a whiff of your own personal body odour." Her face whipped to the side and narrowed her eyes at Sirius Black who was chortling at his own remark.

Valeria sneered at him. Sirius Black — she mentally scoffed. He was Hogwarts' heartthrob; his laid back exterior, award-winning smirk and long black luscious hair was enough to make every girl fall in love. Instead, it drove Valeria crazy, why did a blood traitor deserve to walk around like they owned the place when they were just scum.

"I don't remember talking to you, blood traitor," she sneered and grinned maliciously when he winced and took a slight step back. "But since we're on the topic, you wouldn't know personal hygiene if it smacked you across the face. Seeing as though... y'know, you're a walking STD."

Sirius had opened his mouth to form some sort of witty remark but he couldn't, Valeria had yet again bested him. "And so, you're still a stuck up, grade A bitch," James countered, his eyebrows furrowed.

Valeria narrowed her eyes at the boy, "don't you think it's quite derogatory to a woman? To call them a 'bitch?'" James only stared at her. "I mean you wouldn't want me insulting your..." She trailed off as she looked him up and down, "what's left of your masculinity, would you?"

Valeria managed to hold in a snort as she took in James's reaction, his eyes widened and there was a slight twinge of pink at his cheeks. He quickly recovered though, he cleared his throat and glared at her. "You must think you're so smart—"

"I do. I really do."

James ignored her as he continued, "well let me tell you, I don't think it's derogatory, not to you anyway. I don't see you as a girl, never mind a woman; you're more of an... it."

And now it was Valeria's turn to blush in embarrassment at his loud statement which caused several heads to turn in their direction, her glare hardened as she looked at the boy in dire hate, "yeah? Well, you're an incompetent fool," she retorted lamely. She resulted in flipping him the finger before finally entering the train.

James and Sirius laughed at her despair and shared a high-five, "that went swimmingly well, didn't it, Pads?"

"Absolutely brilliant," Sirius snorted, running a hand through his hair. "We should go find Snivellus and give him a similar welcome," his eyes twinkled with mischief that his partner in crime was able to decipher.

"You guys are unbelievable," their friend, Remus Lupin groaned from behind them, he turned to James, "don't you think that was a little harsh?"

James scoffed in return and shot Remus an incredulous look, "seriously Moony, you've seen it first-hand. She's bloody evil and you know it!"

"I wouldn't be surprised if she was the spawn of the devil!" Sirius cried and James nodded enthusiastically.

No one could deny that fact, it was fairly obvious to those who attended school with them. James Potter and Sirius Black had it in for Valeria and they had a valid reason to. She was a slimy, foul Slytherin snake and they believed that she was blood prejudiced and hated all muggle.

Ever since they started Hogwarts, there was a rivalry between them. The Marauders would insult and hex the Slytherin every chance they got. At the start of first year, James made the mistake of thinking she would be an easy target as she was mainly alone. But he proven to be very wrong when she was easily able to disarm and avoid almost every prank they tried to pull against her. And so when they did manage to pull a prank over her, the victory was that much sweeter.

"Did you see her face?" Peter squeaked, "for once she didn't have a smart-arse response." James and Sirius laughed while Remus only shook his head.

Valeria was now briskly walking through the train to the prefect car and many students scrambled out of the way of the seething girl. Her latest encounter with James Potter and his band of misfits left the Slytherin livid, her fists were balled at her sides as she strode down the aisle. Valeria mumbled incoherently, she hated the way that he always bested her and how his dumb friends always supported him even though they were the ones in the wrong. Valeria was so immersed in her thoughts of anger that she hadn't noticed someone fall into step with her until they spoke.

"Valeria," her head whipped up furiously, her emerald eyes narrowed. But then her face softened when she realised who it was.

"Oh, Regulus, it's just you," she sighed in relief as she felt herself visibly relax.

Regulus Black was only a year younger than herself but proved to be much more mature than the majority of boys in her year – his idiotic brother included. The two Black brothers looked very much alike although there was a distinctive difference between the two. While Sirius had grey, sparkling eyes, Regulus's were a cold, icy blue colour and if you looked close enough, there were light flecks of silver. Regulus was much more calculated and level-headed than his older brother and it was obvious he did better than his brother in school as he took his education more seriously and he was top of his year.

And over his impassive face, his eyes slightly crinkled and a small smirk fell upon his pink lips as he looked to her, "and what has you so worked up?" He posed.

"James Potter," Valeria answered without a pause, her face turning sour at the mere mention of him. "Merlin, sometimes I just wish I could permanently sew his mouth shut and put a box over his head. That way he wouldn't be a bother to anyone ever again."

Regulus regarded the older girl with amusement, "and you really think he won't find another way past that?" 

"You're right," Valeria nodded, on thought. "I might as well slice his arms and legs off." She didn't notice her companion's eyes widen as he stared at her, horrified. Not until she looked back at him and she innocently furrowed her brows. 

He let out a low whistle as his hand reached up to run a hand through his dark hair, "I'd really not want to get onto your bad side right now. You're lethal!" 

She chuckled humourlessly, "yeah well, he's slowly making me lose my mind. I'd like to see you try and deal with him." 

"He's all yours," Regulus curtly replied. "My pain in the arse brother would probably get up all in my face anyway."

Valeria snorted, she knew well of the conflicts between the Black brothers, she'd been there for half of them anyway. They were usually walking along the corridor between classes when they would turn on each other although it was Sirius who usually started it first. He and his egotistical friends aimed hexes at him to which Regulus retaliated and an argument broke out. And it usually ended with words like 'blood-traitor' or 'disgrace' being thrown out on Regulus' end. 

"Ah, the woes of being Sirius Black's younger brother," Valeria exaggerated and Regulus rolled his eyes.

"You're lucky your still on good terms with your brother."

"Meanwhile with my parents..." Valeria trailed off, being one of her closest friends, Regulus already knew the whole story. 

He didn't say anything but looked at her with with comforting eyes which she appreciated. "So, are you headed to the prefect car?" He asked and Valeria nodded. "Me too."

Valeria did a double take; her interest piqued. And it was then when she took note of the shimmering piece of polished metal of his wizard robes. The green and silver prefect badge grew more notable the longer she looked at him until it was the only thing she could focus on.

Her emerald eyes flickered back to his face and she genuinely smiled at him, "Thank Merlin, I'll finally have the company of someone who doesn't make me want to hex them."

"What about Malfoy?" Regulus asked, referring to the platinum-haired boy that was newly appointed Head boy.

Valeria scoffed in response, "Malfoy makes me want to tear my hair from my scalp." An image of the seventh year had entered her mind wearing his signature look of a sneer. "He's so conceited, I wonder how your cousin ever puts up with him." Regulus found himself nodding at her words.

Lucius Malfoy and Narcissa Black were betrothed to one another. It was a given seeing as though they both came from high-status family, and it was just a bonus that they were already interested with one another. Although Valeria would never know what Narcissa ever saw in the boy – he was sordid, inside and out.

As the pair approached the Prefect compartment, students parted for them out of fear; it was mainly due to Valeria's constant scowl and her hexing ways. But they also knew of the manipulative nature of the younger Black.

When they entered, there were already many of the prefects sitting around or standing, all chatting amicably amongst themselves. This compartment was larger in comparison to the others and it all worked in their favour otherwise it would end up being tight for space and uncomfortable.

Regulus and Valeria managed to find seats by the window, beside Severus Snape. Regulus sat by him and she followed, the two boys greeted each other while Valeria remained silent. She had never really held a conversation with the boy despite being in the same year, maybe they exchanged a few words here and there concerning their studies but that was it. The greasy-haired boy mostly kept to himself or he conversed with Lysander Avery and Tobias Mulciber. The most remarkable thing she remembered about him was at the end of last year when he had called Lily Evans a mudblood. Valeria didn't really concern herself over that matter and Lily seemed over it during the summer as she never once mentioned her ex-best friend. She knew that Severus was also interested in the Dark Arts, Valeria was very observant and she noticed the books he took out from the library and would show the other boys. It was no surprise really; he always seemed to be on the outside looking in.

Moments later the door opened once more and Remus Lupin sheepishly stepped through, Valeria restrained herself from rolling her eyes. It was no surprise that he would be the last to show, after causing trouble with his group of friends he would show and pretend to be the responsible prefect he was supposed to be. Valeria knew he didn't take his job as seriously ( not like she did anyway ) otherwise the rowdy Gryffindors wouldn't be causing so much trouble all the time.

Sometimes, Valeria wondered why Lupin chose to be in the presence of those three imbeciles, she didn't understand their friendship. They act like such children and never take anything seriously, despite their growing age. Lupin, however, would occasionally prove to be smart and intellectual so Valeria gave him the benefit of the doubt, but she had never spoken to the boy, nor did she ever want to.

The Gryffindor Prefect looked around the already full compartment, his eyes fell on the only available seat. He harshly gulped, avoided eye contact and sat beside the Slytherin; she had barely regarded him.

Valeria shifted in her seat but said nothing. She felt the gaze of a familiar redhead but she avoided looking in her direction, fortunately, she didn't have to try for long as Lucius stood up and began the same speech that was recycled for every new Head boy or girl. "As prefects, it is our duty to make sure that we uphold the ethos of Hogwarts..."

Like many others in the room, Valeria quickly lost interest – she found the passing scenery outside the window to be more entertaining. The group of leading students were instructed on everyday roles and responsibilities.

When the prefect meeting was adjourned, everyone arose from their seats as they planned to go their own ways and join their friends. Valeria stood and turned to Regulus, ignoring Snape who stood beside him. "Will you be joining us for the rest for the train journey?"

She shook her head in return, she knew that the two of them would be off to join the other Slytherin boys. Valeria had always felt uncomfortable around them and a wave of anxiety always ran through her and a shiver on the back of the neck. She knew that they were all immersed in the Dark Arts and their loyalty was turning to the powerful man on the rise. "I think I'll sit with Issa and Elle. If I can find them," Valeria told him and turned to make her way out but then stopped. "But I'll sit with you in the carriage."

Without waiting for a response, Valeria was out the door and making her way to the Slytherin part of the train. But she didn't get very far before her name was called.

"Hey, wait! Val!" The said girl turned around and Lily caught up with her. Valeria piqued her brow, watching her expectantly. Like the first time she spoke to her, Lily nervously wrung her fingers, "I-I just wanted to talk about the summer—"

"Shut up," Valeria hissed, she glanced up and down the empty aisle before dragging her fellow prefect to the nearest compartment.

It was a compartment with several second or third year students, a mixture of Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs. "Get out," Valeria drawled in an airy tone. Lily stood behind the Slytherin as her harsh eyes landed on panicked faces.

"No, why should we?" A Hufflepuff girl challenged as she folded her arms with a defiant look.

Valeria rolled her eyes at the time-wasting, "do get over yourself. We obviously need the space and you're not doing anything useful with it," she said, her agitation slowly rising. "Now, you're either going to get out willingly or, I'll have to force you out." The sixth year shot the younger students a look as she retracted her wand from her cloak.

No further words were spoken as the students reluctantly got up and filed out, Valeria smirked in triumph. Once they were gone the two girls entered the compartment, Valeria locked the door and pulled down the blind. She turned and sat opposite Lily who was playing with her fingers. "You didn't have to do that y'know," she began awkwardly. "We could've talked someplace else."

Valeria pondered over her words, "you're right but it was fun," she snorted. "Would've been better if I hexed them though." Lily only gave her an unimpressed look and she realised the redhead was already serious concerning school and her prefect duties. "Lighten up, Evans. What is it you wanted anyway?"

"Are we still friends or not?" She questioned. Valeria cocked an eyebrow at the Gryffindor and Lily looked at her, expectantly.

"I don't recall us being friends in the first place."

Lily softly sighed as she played with the sleeve of her uniform. Talking with Valeria proved to be more difficult than she would've liked, she remembered having such fun with her during the summer but she quickly guessed that things were different now that they were back in the environment of their peers. "C'mon you know what I mean, just then when I tried to smile at you, you ignored me and turned away! Why?"

"Anyone could've seen it," Valeria murmured as she interested herself by looking outside.

"So, you're ashamed of me?" Lily guessed; her voice fragile. "You don't want to be seen talking to a muggleborn."

Valeria thought over her words, she couldn't exactly lie because it was the truth. She couldn't have people in her house finding out and calling her a blood traitor – because Valeria was many things but she certainly wasn't that.

"How about we keep this... new acquaintanceship between us. Only us." Lily noticed immediately noticed that she had avoided her previous question but in doing so provided her answer. Valeria was a Pureblood Slytherin and she was muggleborn Gryffindor – the two were already so different on the surface so why bother to delve any deeper.

"Actually..." Lily began and Valeria looked at her curiously. Gone was the sweet smile and in its place was a small glare. "I know you don't want to be friends with me so I'll stop wasting your time, you go back to hanging with your Slytherin buddies!" She exclaimed, rather red in the face. She directed Valeria one last glare before stomping out of the compartment.

Valeria was left to sit in the silent, tense air that Lily had left behind. She was surely taken aback, she had never expected someone like that to speak to her in her manner and it made her realise that she had underestimated Lily Evans. She certainly had more backbone than any other Gryffindor and maybe if the circumstances were different then Valeria would jump at the chance at being her friend but they weren't. She refused to acknowledge the fact why she really pushed Lily away and pushed the very thought to the back of her head.

When she was sure the coast was clear, Valeria slipped out the compartment and continued on her way towards the Slytherins. And after the chat with Lily not going her way, she was somewhat deflated but she refused to show it. So, instead of finding her friends to sit with in their compartment she managed to find an empty one.

With the curtains over the window, and the door locked, Valeria settled and read a book to pass the time. No, this wasn't a muggle book she had burrowed from the library – she could in no way risk bringing one to the castle – it was a classic favourite that embraced the wizarding world. In her time of solitary, it would've been perfect to listen to her music through her Walkman. But she hadn't brought it along with her, the last time she did, it proved to be useless as it seemed that all muggle inventions stopped working once you reach the vicinity of the castle.

It was understandable, there was no way that muggle technology could ever beat the way of wizards, they were just too powerful. And it made Valeria wonder, was it a sign? Was she not meant to learn the way of the muggles and was she supposed to always look down on them and see them as inferior?


	4. 03. expelliarmus

WHEN THE TRAIN CAME TO A STOP AT THE HOGMEADE STATION,

Valeria Montalvo stayed back to ensure that the Slytherin car was empty. When all of their students had left, the prefects themselves exited the train.

Valeria followed the mass of students as they either went to the small boats or to the self-drawn carriages. Valeria eyed the first year students that were lining up with anticipation and awaited the wonders of the magical school Hogwarts; the newly sixth year reminisced her time when she too was a doe-eyed and naïve child. However, she wasn't able to linger on her thoughts for long as she crossed to where the carriages were lined up.

By now, it had turned dark. The sky was almost black and the only evidence that it was ever light were the streaks of blue that were slowly succumbing to the darkness. The sun had long since departed, bringing with it all signs of warmth gleefulness; in its place stood the illuminated moon in the shape of a crescent, shrouded in the darkness and bleak atmosphere. Now dressed in her school uniform, Valeria felt the slightest bit warmer but it wasn't near enough protection against the strangely cold September night.

She walked along, holding her cloak close to her, she wanted nothing more to be in the walls of Hogwarts where it was nice and warm. Valeria inspected the carriages for one which was empty or one which held a familiar face. She soon gave up on the possibility of riding with her friends as they were nowhere to be found. She had only come across those which were already full with students she had never seen in the last five years.

When it came to knowing people who attended the same school as her, Valeria was dreadful at it. She could barely recognised the faces of those who had been in the same class as her for years. So, her friends were always surprised when referring to a person they were gossiping about ( most often than not, nastily ) and Valeria had no idea who they were. But Valeria always had the same explanation when it came to that – she only remembered the names and faces of people who were worth remembering.

Valeria was about to give up and find a carriage to herself when her name was called from somewhere behind her, "Oi, Ria! Over here!" The said girl turned around and a mop of dark hair – similar to her own – stuck out from the carriage.

She sighed in relief and approached the carriage where Kairi was already sat; thankful that she didn't have to sit elsewhere. However, her appreciation was short-lived when she saw who else was sat with him. Dexter Hornitt – the sight of him alone almost made Valeria want to turn and walk away. The three of them had met in first year, on the train to Hogwarts for the first time. Immediately the two boys had hit it off, launching into a conversation concerning quidditch. Valeria had never taken an interest in the sport beforehand and so she was completely useless. And while the two of them were sorted into Ravenclaw together – she to Slytherin. The two of them never became friends, Hornitt tried to make an effort for Kairi's sake but Valeria knew he didn't like her and the feeling was mutual.

Valeria had never liked him and she somehow always knew that something was off with him. And the incident of last year revealed everything; it still pained her to be around him but she had to pretend like nothing was wrong when it came to her brother. He was his best friend and she couldn't do that to him and so she kept silent. But every second that passed, when she didn't say something, Valeria was complete turmoil – there was some days where she couldn't live with it and she had to cope in some way and there were others where she was 'fine'. Like she was today, before she had seen him.

She harshly swallowed down the bile that was threatening to rise and broke eye contact with the ash-haired boy. She further inspected the carriage and saw that there were three girls that were sat opposite them. Valeria saw that they were also Ravenclaws and vaguely recalled seeing them around the castle sometimes. Without further delay, Valeria hopped on and took a seat beside her brother.

Once she was settled, Valeria took note of the agitated looks she received which was impossible to ignore. She was able to guess what their intentions with her brother were and she mentally prepared for the batting eyelashes and hair twirling. Valeria looked back to her brother and raised her eyebrows, he responded with a shrug, it seemed he also had no idea who they were. She let out a tired sigh, and turned to face the starry night sky as the carriages began to pull themselves towards the castle.

"So, where are your Slytherin friends?" Kairi asked, curiously.

Valeria grumbled in response, "Malfoy that little shit. He told me to stay behind and make sure there were no more Slytherins on the train. And the prick didn't even tell me which carriage they were in!"

"Oh, that's terrible!" An uninvited opinion mumbled, their voice dropping with sarcasm. The twins looked at them with raised brows, between the two of them, they couldn't match a name to a face. The Ravenclaw girl was casting a look of annoyance towards them, namely, Valeria. Her auburn hair framed her face and her brown eyes were narrowed down to her.

"Can I help you?" Valeria asked boredly, her gaze drifted to outside the carriage window.

The girl scoffed once more, "I don't know who you think you are but Kairi was sat with us first! You can't just come in here and hog him to yourself. I doubt he would even like a Slytherin low life like you in the first place," she huffed and folded her arms across her chest.

"So, you're saying I can't talk to my brother so you can try and fail to make a move on him?" She asked rhetorically and there was a slight hostility that only her brother recognised. The auburn-headed girl's eyes flicked between the Montalvos and she blushed in embarrassment.

Kairi snorted at her words, shaking his head amusedly. He turned to the girl who held a defeated expression with a small grin, "sorry love, you'll have to excuse my sister," he began and Valeria rolled her eyes. "She has no people skills, I'm afraid."

"I'm not surprised," the same girl responded, a hopeful glint in her eyes as she smirked. "She is a Slytherin after all, they all hiss in their dungeons like the snakes they are."

Valeria's expression darkened and her eyes narrowed, "fuck this." She went to reach for the carriage door when an arm stopped her.

"What are you doing?" Kairi asked.

"What does it look like? I'm getting out." She said as if it was obvious enough. Having to ride along with Hornitt was bad enough but there was no way in hell she would tolerate him and the three desperate Ravenclaws pining over her brother.

Without another word, she pushed on the carriage door and climbed out. It was easy enough considering it was travelling at a slow enough speed and it wasn't far from the ground. The ground was hard and covered in gravel but she landed nicely on her feet. She ignored the gasps and the calling of her brother to get back on as she held her head up and walked on, refusing to watch the carriage go past and stared straight ahead.

The night was cold and she tried to ignore it as best as she could, digging her hands into her cloak. Valeria paid no mind to the rest of the carriages that travelled past her, some of the students calling out to her, she responded with her middle finger. The walk wasn't too bad as it was probably only ten or so minutes extra, which she was okay with, she wasn't exactly in a rush to sit in the Great Hall as the sorting ceremony droned on.

Valeria was less than surprised when she spotted her brother a couple of metres up ahead, but that didn't stop her from asking when she reached him. "What are you doing here?"

Kairi sent her a look, "you're really asking me that question." Valeria didn't say anything. "You're my bloody sister—"

"Really? I had no clue!"

"—I'm not going to let you start the year on your own, idiot." He said seriously, something he rarely ever was. But it was different when it came to Valeria.

Kairi studied his sister as a small but appreciative grin pulled at her lips. He also noticed that it didn't quite reach her eyes. He was sure that there was a difference about her but he couldn't quite figure out what it was. That summer, the Montalvo family didn't go back to Puerto Rico as their parents were swamped up in their work. And in this time, Valeria was barely home, she was always out somewhere, disappearing for most of the day. And whenever Kairi asked her about it, she always said that she was with 'a friend from school' and it was left at that. Her answer left many possibilities of who she was spending her time with; all of the possibilities were members of the Slytherin House which left him anxious. He didn't trust her friends, although he knew there were worse characters in the house, he still didn't like the way they had changed her. It was them and their dumb Pureblood etiquette that left his sister to be conceited and narrow minded.

But whenever she was at home, she was so different – almost as if it tortured her to be back at the manor. Kairi was hurt by the permanent pained or the irritated expression on her face, he understood how she felt, how she always felt whenever she was around their parents. He saw how their parents treated his sister and whenever he asked them to stop or to treat her better, he was always ignored or shut down. He didn't understand how his parents could turn on their daughter they loved because she was sorted in house that wasn't the first choice – she was still an amazing person nevertheless, he didn't understand why they failed to see that.

"When do you reckon we'll get there?" Kairi asked as they continued walking.

Valeria shrugged, "maybe before the first years get there," she looked back and noticed he was trailing slightly behind. "But not if your fat arse doesn't get a move on."

Kairi whined, "it's not my fault my muscles get tired easily!"

"Seriously?!" Valeria stared at him incredulously. "You've only been walking for two minutes! And you call yourself an athlete." She scoffed.

"Wow, sis, I find that very insulting," Kairi clutched at his heart and she gave him a shove. "Even after I came down here so you wouldn't have to suffer alone."

"No one asked you to," she snorted.

"Like no one asked you to jump out in the first place." Valeria gave him a look. "But a thank you would've been really nice. Thank you big bro, you're too kind, after I was stupid enough to walk all the way to the castle!" He raised his voice to mimic her.

"First off, you're only older by one minute, don't get a big head." Valeria scowled at him, "you can shove that thank you up your arse. And I do not sound like that!" She growled defensively.

"Sure you don't," Kairi snorted sarcastically. He proceeded to flip his non-existent long hair and raise the pitch of his voice once more. "I'm Valeria and I talk like this and I'm such a girl... sunshine, flowers and rainbows."

Valeria was appalled, "that can't possibly be what you connotate girls as being! That's like me going," she paused as she deepened her voice. "I'm a dude and I love sports, girls and food."

Kairi raised his eyebrows, "is that what you think I sound like?" he touched his throat. Valeria rolled her eyes as her brother had missed her whole point.

"No, this is what you sound like." She shook her head. "The only thing I care about is quidditch, and you too, Olivia. Wait no, you Amelia. No, it's Yasmina. No, Selena. No, Leilani. No, Natasha. No, Delilah. No—"

"Okay!" Kairi exclaimed. "I think we get the general idea," he huffed and quickened his pace slightly.

Valeria noticed and fell into step with him. "Awwh, is someone mad?" She teased.

"Nope, not mad."

"Yes, you are," Valeria argued.

"No, I'm not!"

"Yes, you are!"

"No, I'm not!"

"Yes, you are!"

"No, I'm not!"

"No, you're not!"

"Yes, I am!"

"Aha! So you are mad!" Valeria exclaimed in triumph.

"Fuck! Damn it, Ria! You are so annoying," Kairi grumbled. "Do you ever shut up?"

Valeria rolled her eyes. "Sure, I'm the one who never shuts up," she drawled. "You're the one who's always talking."

"Because you never do!" He blurted and as soon as he did, his hand flew to his mouth. He turned to her as he stopped walking. His answer was not one Valeria was expecting as she stared at him with wide eyes.

Neither of them said anything for a while, Valeria didn't know what to say to her brother's exclamation. It truly came out of the blue, she didn't have a clue he felt that way. But judging for the way he guiltily avoided her gaze, she could tell that it had been bothering him for a while.

She hadn't meant to, she didn't realise that she had that much of an effect on her brother for him to pick up on all the little things. Valeria thought that because she had been so busy during the summer she didn't notice she had been taking with Kairi less.

"...I'm sorry," his voice brought her away from her thoughts. "I-I shouldn't have said that," he awkwardly ran a hand through his hair.

Valeria shook her head, "don't apologise. You said nothing wrong." She nervously fiddled with the braclets on her wrist, Kairi noticed she had been doing the a lot lately. "I'm the one who should be sorry. I guess I've just been really occupied lately..." She tailed off.

"It hasn't been just this summer," Kairi said. "Even before," he regarded her carefully as her eyes widened. "I just want you to talk to me. You'll tell me if something's wrong, right?"

Valeria sighed, set to tell him that there was nothing wrong but one look at his face and her stomach slightly churned. His brows were furrowed and his golden eyes were set on her, searching her face for any giveaways on how she was actually feeling. Valeria could never lie to her brother when it was blatantly obvious that he was worried for her. Over the years as they grew up, the twins shared a close bond. They relied on each other and shared their secrets, it didn't really change when they entered Hogwarts, but now it seemed there was a shift in his twin sister. And Kairi was being left in the dark. "Yeah, you'll be the first to know," she mustered up the best smile she could offer him right now before turning away.

Kairi grinned in satisfaction and carried on walking, leaving Valeria to trail behind him, her fingers fumbling with the silver bracelets decorating her wrist. "We'll miss the whole sorting ceremony if we don't hurry!" He told her and they slightly quickened their pace.

For the rest of their walk up to the castle, the twins engaged in light-hearted conversation, their past one seemingly forgotten. They talked as any other siblings would, a few inevitable and pointless arguments but it wasn't something that was surprising.

When the pair finally reached the Entrance Hall, the castle was quiet. Before entering, they noticed the carriages had already pulled up and the boats by the dock of the Great Lake were empty meaning the first years were also already inside. Valeria had immediately blamed her brother for stopping and wanting to have a 'heart to heart moment' and now they were embarrassingly late.

She could imagine it, the door of the Great Hall opening and every pair of eyes turning to look at them and stare as they awkwardly made their way to their seats, the very thought made her stomach squirm – it appeared not to have the same effect on her brother. And it was at times like these where Valeria wished she was as popular and confident as he.

The dreaded feeling in her stomach increased as the knot in her stomach tightened. They stood at arm's length before the closed doors of the Great Hall, Valeria felt as if she could throw up at any moment. "Go on, open it," she motioned for Kairi to do the honours.

He turned to glare at her, "why can't you do it? It's your fault we're this late anyway."

"My fault?! No, this is because you're such a slow walker, you kept stopping every two minutes."

"Because it's a long and tiring walk. I don't have that much stamina!"

"You're literally a quidditch player!"

"Let me rephrase that." Kairi gave her a pointed glare, "I don't have any stamina on the ground! There is a difference!" He threw his arms about.

"Merlin's beard! You're literally so annoying, just open the bloody doors!"

"Why can't you?" He asked once more. "It's not rocket science!"

"What the hell is rocket science?!" She folded her arms, defiantly. "I'm not doing it, because I don't want to get embarrassed, you on the other hand..."

"Wow, so you're okay with me being the laughing stock of the the school?" Valeria nodded. Kairi shook his head but opened the doors without further question.

The twins held their breaths as the grand doors pushed open, scraping heavily against the ground. The Great Hall already had a warm glow as the Professors were sat at the head table. The floating candles lit up the room and the transfigured ceiling displayed the night sky similar to the one Valeria had witnessed moments ago. And as predicted, the sound of the door caused every head gathered in the hall to turn around. Valeria felt the pressure of a thousand pairs of eyes stare into her soul, and no, she wasn't being dramatic. All the first years in the centre of the room blinked owlishly at the late arrivals as so did the older students who sat their tables, she heard many of them begin to whisper and she slowly felt her cheeks redden.

"Oh merlin," she heard Kairi mumble beside her and she wholeheartedly agreed.

"Ah!" Their headmaster exclaimed at all eyes turned to him. "Mr and Miss Montalvo, how nice of you to join us!" He stood from his seat at the head table and gestured his hands to their own. "Why don't you get to your seats and we can continue the Sorting Ceremony."

The twins nodded and without a word and through the protruding silence, they made their way over to their respected tables, Slytherin being on the far left and Ravenclaw being the one beside it. Valeria ignored the gasps from the first years when they discovered that one of them were in the house of green and silver.

"I'll see you later," Kairi nodded as he went to sit at the Ravenclaw table and Valeria only nodded.

The first person she noticed in their seat was Evan Rosier but he was surrounded by all his other friends so she decided to steer clear from them. Her eyes then found Estelle, who was already watching her with her smirk, she was sat with Narcissa. As she approached closer to the table, she noticed that there was a third member with them – Lucius Malfoy.

She silently sat beside the blonde, she didn't miss the look of amusement her friends shot her. As soon as they were seated the sorting ceremony continued.

"Valeria!" Estelle whispered, bringing the girl's attention to her. She was beaming with a grin, "why are you so late?!"

By now, her red cheeks had cooled down, "I walked."

Estelle raised her eyebrows in obvious surprise, "all the way from Hogsmeade?" Narcissa had asked that.

"Why?" Estelle looked at her in confusion. "Were there no more carriages?"

Valeria shook her head, "no. I was sat with some obnoxious Ravenclaws pining after my brother. I had to leave before I chucked them out myself."

Estelle snorted, "I wish I was there. At least you missed the snog fest between those two," she jerked her thumb in the direction of the pair opposite them.

Valeria perked her brow, "here? Have you no shame?" She looked pointedly at the boy who had an arm loosely around Narcissa who rolled he eyes.

"That's very rich, coming from you," Lucius drawled, his nose upturned. "Always wanting to be the centre of attention, huh?"

Valeria scoffed with a roll of her eyes. "I can't say the same for you and that ponytail of yours."

Lucius glared at her, "shut up! There is nothing wrong with my ponytail!" He said defensively and a few heads turned, Valeria looked away.

The first years were still being sorted, she noticed that some of them were looking in her direction. Valeria offered them a intimidating scowl to which they hurriedly turned away. "I hate kids," she mumbled.

Estelle looked at her, "you were a first year too, at some point."

"I doubt I was as annoying as them. They can't stop bloody staring at me."

"They're probably wondering why you're so hideous," Lucius quipped.

She sent him a sarcastic smile, "actually, I think they're wondering why I'm sitting with a she-man."

Narcissa rolled her eyes, nothing that was unusual when the two were in each other's presence, which was a lot of the time. They could never go one minute without the other making a jab at the other, it often annoyed Narcissa because she wanted them to get along. The idea was far fetched. It was moments like these when she wished that her boy wasn't so rude to her closest friends, especially Valeria. She'd told him plenty of times to be nicer or to at least act like it; she knew it wasn't hard to do as she felt the same towards his friends but she wasn't insulting them over every little thing.

"So, Val, how come we didn't see you on the train?" Narcissa asked, attempting to change the conversation. There was a quiet scoff from Lucius to which Valeria rolled her eyes to.

"I couldn't find you on the train after the prefect meeting," Valeria shrugged nonchalantly. "So I found an empty compartment to get some reading done."

Estelle scoffed, "what were you reading? Classes haven't even started yet."

Valeria rolled her eyes lightly, "some of us like to read for fun, not that your feeble-mind would understand anyway."

"Touché," Estelle simply laughed the insult off. She was used to her friends making subtle jabs at her intelligence or lack thereof.

Estelle Fawley and Narcissa Black were in the year above Valeria and this was their final year at Hogwarts, unfortunately they were the only girls that Valeria considered as friends. She rather enjoyed their company and whenever she wasn't with her brother or Evan and Regulus, she was often in their company. But lately, Valeria was with them less and less and that was all because of a certain conceited Head boy. The two of them could only be around each other for a certain amount of time before they were at each other's throats. Narcissa tried to keep the peace between them but that rarely worked and she couldn't say anything because Narcissa and Lucius were engaged so Valeria willingly walked away.

The group was then silenced by Slughorn's harsh authoritative glare. So, they watched as the first years were sorted. The Slytherin table loudly applauded whenever a first year was announced to their house. Quite a few were added this year, it was more so than the nine, last year. Once there were twelve new Slytherins sat at the end of their table, Headmaster Dumbledore stood and delivered his yearly speech.

When the greying old wizard sat back in his seat, mouth-watering, devouring food had appeared from thin air and onto the tables. There was a raucous shout from the students and at once they all reached for the food – grabbing what they desired before it was all gone. Valeria went for the spiced chicken, couscous and roasted veggies, topping it all with creamy, thick gravy.

Feeling an intense gaze on her, her head shot up. Her emerald eyes skimming around the hall, searching for the culprit. She looked between the heads of students and then they halted. They stopped on the familiar face of James Potter, he was once again surrounded by his obnoxious peers as he stared at her with a smirk. Valeria narrowed her eyes as she recalled their last encounter. Fuck you, she mouthed to him and for whatever ever reason, his face broke out in a grin. I would but Death Eaters aren't my type. And he had the audacity to wink at her.

Even from a distance, he was painfully cocky. Valeria glared at him as her face reddened in anger, several scenarios with James Potter in pain passed in her head. Just like Blood traitors aren't mine. She let a smirk return to her face as he glared at her before breaking away from their eye contact, she went back to her food victoriously.

But his accusation still sat with her. Ever since two years ago, there had rumours circulating the castle that members of Slytherin had joined the Death Eaters. It was really no surprise that Valeria was thrown into the mix. She tried her best to ignore them and seem that she was unaffected by it. But whenever she heard people whispering about her or whenever people asked her if she had joined the allegiance, it made her rather upset ( not that she'd let anyone know ). People always seemed to judge simply due to the colour of her uniform and she never had anyone to talk to about it because they simply wouldn't understand.

Her head turned to the group of boys that were sat several seats from her, she knew that they were involved in the Dark Arts. She knew that they held meetings in the common room late at night, or read books on such matters in the restricted section of the library or they practised these ugly spells in the forbidden forest. Valeria was scared for them, even though they weren't all friends, she didn't want them to get hurt – or worse, to see them go down such condemning path. Whenever she thought of Regulus being involved in such acts, it bothered her because he was younger than the rest of them and she knew he was only doing it to please his parents ( especially after the disgrace of his brother ).

"Are the two of you together?" Estelle's loud voice in her ear, finally led her to turn away from them and back to her food.

"What are you on about?" Valeria asked boredly as she pushed her plate away and reached for the fairy cakes that now sat on the mahogany table.

The blonde beside her rolled her eyes and gave her an incredulous look, as if it was the most obvious answer. "You and Rosier, duh!"

Valeria stopped focusing on the delicious fairy cake in her hand and shot Estelle a look, one that could kill. She looked around them to see if anyone had heard her exclaim but luckily no one did – Narcissa and Malfoy were too busy with their own secretive conversation. She turned back to Estelle, "we're not. Now drop it," she seethed.

She intended to back to eating in silence when Estelle spoke again, "but why?" She whined, making sure to keep her voice low. "You'd make a great couple," she smirked and wiggled her eyebrows playfully.

Valeria groaned in annoyance and shook her head, her eyes fell onto Evan once more as he was talking to his friends. Evan Rosier was the first real friend she made since being sorted into Slytherin. He first approached her a couple of weeks into the year, he had congratulated her for getting the highest marks in their potions work; Valeria blushed at the compliment and offered to help him and that was when their friendship began. Over the years the two of them had grown closer – Valeria didn't see herself as having many friends but she definitely counted Evan as her best friend ( as well as her brother ). He was the only person, outside of her family who knew of her secret and she trusted him, she knew that he would take it with him to the grave if needs be.

"How many times do I have to say it? We're just friends, nothing more."

Estelle went to say something else but was stopped by the threatening, dark glare Valeria directed at her. "Fine," she grumbled, bringing herself to talk about a far less interesting topic. "Tell me about your summer then, I wanna hear all about it."

Valeria shifted in her seat, she knew this question was bound to come up and so she prepared her answer on the train. But nevertheless, she found her heart beating loudly against her chest and her hands were getting sweaty underneath the table. Valeria took a breath and mentally told herself to calm down in order to keep herself composed and she prayed to Merlin that they wouldn't tell that she was lying.

"There's not much to say," Valeria awkwardly stated as she reached for another fairy cupcake."My parents were busy working so we couldn't go back to Puerto Rico. So Kai and I just hung out together."

Estelle blinked at her, "that's a real bummer." Estelle stated before continuing, "I, on the other hand, had a fantastic summer, you wanna hear about it?"

Valeria went to respond but before she could even open her mouth, Estelle had already launched into her detailed account. She looked to Narcissa who was discreetly shaking her head ( she had already withstood their friend's painfully long summer ), Valeria held back a sigh before halfheartedly listening to Estelle's words, nodding every so often to let her know she was listening.

Out of the three friends, Estelle was definitely the most gregarious, her two friends sitting on the opposite end of the spectrum; but it worked in the favour of their friendship. She reminded Valeria of her brother and reckoned that the two of them would get along well considering that they were both extroverts, charismatic and attractive. Estelle had been asked many times if she was Veela and she had been flattered every time; it wasn't surprising seeing as though she had bright capturing blue eyes and silver blonde hair that framed her heart-shaped face which almost never had spots or blemishes.

"... And so we ended up staying stranded on the beach but it was awesome because we stayed under the stars. It was bloody brilliant!"

"I bet it was," Valeria said and she nodded enthusiastically.

Once the welcome feast had concluded, prefects were told to guide the first years to the common rooms. Regulus and Snape stood up from their seats and went to follow their given instruction, Valeria should've went up with them but she figured that the two of them wouldn't need any help, so she remained in her seat.

By now, the food had disappeared from the tables, leaving students to talk freely amongst themselves or to also leave and head to their common rooms. Valeria considered getting up for she was already feeling rather tired and she wasn't contributing much to their conversation they were having of the weird shops in Knockturn Alley. Unlike the other three, Valeria had never stepped foot there – she had heard many sinister stories about the place, she would never understand why Estelle and Narcissa would even want to step foot there.

Valeria was prepared to back to the common room, hoping to get an early night before school started tomorrow. That was before, a new presence dropped themselves on the other side of her. His arm fell over Valeria's shoulder, she gave him a pointed look and he only grinned. "Do I need a reason to sit next to my beautiful best friend?" He posed as he brought her closer into him. Valeria only narrowed her eyes.

"No, I suppose not," Valeria's eyes fluttered shut. The smell of peppermint infiltrating her nose. "Today has been a long day, I just want to go to bed," she whined.

"Can I join?" Valeria's eyes flew open and Evan playfully wiggled his eyebrows.

Valeria snorted, unimpressed. "Yeah, no thanks. Do you want to go to the common room?" she asked. Lucius and Narcissa barely acknowledged them and Estelle wouldn't stop giving the pair suggestive looks

Evan agreed and they rose from their seats and exited the Great Hall. They walked along the darkened corridors, "so, how was your summer?" He said with a like smirk, his brown eyes glinting.

Valeria gave him a look. "what is wrong with you?"

"Don't tell you've forgotten already?" Evan with a smirk, Valeria responded with a blank look which prompted him to continue. "Do you not remember a certain letter you wrote to me?"

Still, nothing. "You said that you missed me, that I was your best friend and you couldn't wait to see me," Evan's smirk grew as he watched Valeria's eyes widened and looked at him with chagrin. "and... I think there was something else." He tapped his chin as he pretended to think. "Ah yes! You also said-"

"Don't you dare!" Valeria glared at him, her eyes narrowed dangerously and a tinge of pink painted her cheeks.

"-that you love me!" He declared with a wide grin. In a second, she had leaped to cover his mouth with her hand. It was during the summer when she had sent him a letter she almost regretted five minutes later. She was an emotional wreck that day, her parents had locked her in her bedroom and they refused to let her come down for dinner. She owled Evan for comfort because she knew that he was still in England for the summer. Of course, it proved to be a mistake on her part.

"Shut up!" She scowled, "You are such an idiot. As a friend, okay! I love you, like I love Issa and Elle and Reg. So, shut it!" She hesitantly removed her hand.

Evan chuckled as he threw his arm over her shoulder again. "Who would've ever thought that the Valeria Montalvo was ever capable of loving someone with that cold heart of hers?"

"You're annoying," she muttered with a roll of her eyes.

"But you love me anyway," he winked and Valeria groaned.

"And I can just as easily take it back," she said, pointedly.

Evan threw his head back as he laughed, he looked down at her with apparent humour, "you can try, but I still have the letter in evidence."

Valeria narrowed her eyes, looking up at him, he only smiled back at her. "Burn it," she seethed.

"No can do," he shook his head. "I'm afraid I've already framed it for the many years to come," he gave her shoulder a squeeze.

"I hate you," she muttered.

"We both know that's not true."

"Fuck you."

After enduring more of Evan's light-hearted teasing and Valeria's blatant murmurs of denial, the two soon reached their common room and it was the latter who uttered the password to gain access. "Parsletongue."

The grand room was dimly lit by green lamps scattered about the room, there were three ten foot tall windows opposite to where they were stood. The waters of the Great Lake reflected under the light of the luminescent moon, the greenish tone that sparkled in the moonlight and then reflected off of the dungeon windows further enhanced the spectacle. Emerald flames danced around the fire at the front of the common room and unlike most fires that radiated warmth, this was cold and unfeeling but it certainly was a sight and added to the Slytherin aesthetic. A hard, velvet cushioned couch was placed directly opposed to the fire. Throughout the common room – green and black chairs and sofas were arranged about the room.

There were already several students in the common room, most of them being first years. Valeria was the first to notice Regulus sitting in the armchair by the flames, seemingly engrossed in a book sprawled on his lap. She dragged Evan along with her as she approached the green leather sofa beside him. "How was the tour?" Valeria asked as she settled in the seat.

The newly made prefect raised his head and his cobalt eyes regarded those that had joined him. He folded the corner of the page and pushed the book to his side, Valeria glanced at the cover, it was a black hardback, not one she was familiar with. She dragged her eyes upwards when Regulus spoke, "Snape is a prat."

"Where have you been the last five years?" Evan questioned him. "Under a rock?"

Valeria nudged him, "what did the greasy-haired git do this time?" She asked.

Regulus' eyes turned to the fire, "I'm not surprised he doesn't really have any friends. Although I really do wonder why on earth he was made a prefect."

"He's a portions protegee, he basically worships the ground old Sluggie' walks on," Evan said with a roll of his eyes.

"Still," Regulus continued. "He sneered at every question the first year when they asked a question and he would even let me say anything."

"Why not?"

"He apparently has more experience than me."

"Bullshit," Valeria commented with a roll of her eyes. "He's just using his age to finally have some sort of superiority over you. Last year, all he did was scowl and offer snide remarks. You should've told him to stick one up his arse."

"Yeah, should've." Regulus agreed and a silence settled over them.

Valeria found herself staring into the malachite flames and laid her head on Evan's shoulder. Regulus had gone back to reading and Evan seemed content with the silence. "I should probably go to sleep soon," she said as a yawn escaped her lips and settled in Evan's side.

As she did so, Valeria's thoughts drifted elsewhere. She knew that this year was important for her and there was no room for her to slack off. After completing her OWLs she was one step closer to achieving her goals of becoming an official in the department of law enforcement. In some sick way, Valeria was glad that her parents treated her in such a way – it drove her to work harder in her studies so she could disprove whatever they thought of her. She dreamed of the day when she could wave about her success in their faces. Valeria knew that she had to work hard but she knew that it would be worth it in the long run.


	5. 04. obliviate

Wednesday 3rd September 1976

IT WAS OFFICIALLY THE FIRST DAY OF THE SCHOOL YEAR AND VALERIA WAS UP EARLY —

hoping to start her day in the best possible way. The previous day had consisted of the sixth years finalising the options that they were to be taking for the next two years. Valeria had done extremely well in her OWLs receiving O's in her best subjects and at least an A in her very worst ones.

All throughout the day, they had meetings with their head of Houses as they went through the options. Sitting opposite Horace Slughorn, it was safe to say that there were not going to be any problems. "My, my, what a splendid set of results Miss Montalvo. I sure do hope to see you in my potions class," Slughorn had proposed as she first sat down. Valeria ended up choosing, History of Magic ( by default ), Transfigurations, Charms, Ancient Runes, DADA and potions ( much to professor Slughorn's delight ).

When she awoke, the rest of her roommates were all still asleep. Valeria laid in her bed for a while she stared at the high ceiling, she let out a sigh as she turned to the alarm clock on her bedside table. It was nearly quarter to eight; Valeria rubbed the remaining sleep from her eyes. There were small movements from the end of her bed and she peeked over to see that Salem was still sleeping soundly. The prefect carefully moved from the bed, she made sure that the other sleeping girls would not wake. Valeria tiptoed to the end of her bed and to her trunk, she took out all of the shower essentials and made her way into the bathroom.

The first thing she did upon entering the small bathroom that she shared with her three dorm mates was gaze at her reflection in the mirror. Her eyes immediately dropped to the sink not wishing to see anymore. She looked at the four different toothbrushes in the brush holder before pulling her own out. Putting on a satisfactory amount of toothpaste on the bristles, she began to brush away her morning breath – all the while to brush her hair which proved to be a massive struggle. It was extremely easy for her hair to get knotty and heavily brushing her hair often got tiresome. In the end, she just gave up and used a charm to brush through her onyx locks.

In the actual shower, Valeria more or less took ten minutes until she had finished. She dried herself off before exiting the steamy bathroom. Much cooler air already hit her body as the comfort of warmth rolled off.

Her roommates were also up and were already dressed in their robes. Once they had caught sight of her, the previous conversation had fallen silent and it was obvious that whatever they were talking about, she was the subject. Valeria couldn't help but roll her eyes at their pettiness, she had just about had enough of them giving her shit every day. One of them scoffed and they all shot her looks before leaving the dorm. Valeria didn't care about them anymore; she had learnt not to let them get under her skin. They were just girls who had nothing better to. Unfortunately, seeing as they were a year apart, she wasn't able to share a room with Narcissa and Estelle and so she had to settle with them.

Valeria waited until the dormitory door slammed shut before she started to get ready for the day. With her towel tight around her body, she retrieved her uniform from the trunk at the end of her bed. "Pathetic, aren't they, Salem?" She found herself asking as she got dressed.

At the end of her bed, a kneazle was perched licking her fur. She had grey spotted fur, greenish yellow eyes and her long ears were currently drooping as she bathed herself. Valeria had owned the pet since she was a little girl, long before Hogwarts, she knew that kneazles weren't exactly allowed as pets in Hogwarts but she had managed to kept her hidden and Salem knew how to behave so she wasn't a problem. 

Salem's response was a quiet but threatening hiss, Valeria laughed in delight. "At least I can always count on you," she sighed as she sat on her bed and lifted her pet into her lap, she purred and snuggled closer.

Crystal Wardoff and Patricia Parkinson. She had no idea why the pair didn't like her, seeing as though they've never even spoken. From the very first day in first year, Valeria knew that she wouldn't fit in with the girls; they always spoke about her in hushed voices and they would always laugh and point and they would constantly glare in her direction. When she brought the matter up with her brother, he claimed that they were just jealous. But Valeria thought that his theory was not the reason, as there was nothing to be jealous of.

Penelope Greengrass, a tall blonde – she was fairly popular throughout the school. She was someone Valeria wished she could be like but life had other plans. Penelope was funny and charismatic; she was also popular due to her amazing skills as a beater and captain on the Slytherin Quidditch team. In their first year, she was the only one out of the three that actually made an effort and at a certain point, Valeria could envision herself being friends with the enthusiastic blonde. But all that wishful thinking came to a halt when Penelope developed a crush on Valeria's twin brother.

One month into that crush, she found Kairi sharing cheek kisses and giggles with a Hufflepuff girl in the back of the library. And from there, all friendliness and acknowledgements stopped. For the first couple of days, she blamed her brother for the broken potential friendship. But then she quickly realised that it wasn't his fault, he had already moved onto another girl. As much as she hated to say it – Kairi was a manwhore. He would give Sirius a run for his money. Her brother was athletic, cool and he had been blessed with all the better genes from their family. Kairi was much more sly when it came to hooking up with girls, unlike Sirius, he would build a genuine like for days, sometimes weeks and the poor girls would think they had an actual chance before it all came crashing down.

Once she had put on her Slytherin robe, she quickly laced up her Docs and she was up. Salem was now curled up on her pillow, watching her move about. She re-entered the bathroom, her long curls was still damp so she performed a quick hair-drying charm and went through her basic routine of makeup ( eyeliner, mascara and lip gloss ). She finished with fitting on her expensive jewellery; pure gold at her earlobes, dangly shiny silver at her wrists, two or three rings and a treasured pendant in the shape of an emerald rock with tiny diamonds surrounding it that hung on a golden chain. 

In Slytherin, blood status, money and looks were what mattered, and if you had all three, you were powerful. All of her housemates were aware of the fact and with everyone being competitive for the top, Valeria had no choice but to flaunt alongside them. Her school robes were always in pristine quality, her held high as she wordlessly showed off what she owned. She checked herself in the mirror once more before walking back into her room and picked up her bag. 

"Goodbye now Salem," Valeria kissed her kneazle before she made her way out of her dorm. She walked past the other dorms before turning the corner into the common room. She noticed hushed voices from a certain group of boys come to a sudden halt; when she turn to face them, she stopped. She directed a fake smile before turning away and heading out the common room as quick as possible. She let out a breath she didn't know she was holding once the stone wall concealed shut behind her.

Valeria quickly composed herself and continued on her way. But her thoughts were frozen on what she came across only a few moments ago. She tried not to interfere with their choices, especially when they conducted meetings such as those. But it was at certain times when she wanted more than anything, for them to be normal teenagers. She didn't want them to think that they had a duty towards the Dark Lord and that if they didn't do what was told of them they would have to suffer the consequences.

The Slytherin Prefect walked along the corridors, proceeding with her wistful thinking. When she reached the Great Hall, Valeria noticed that there were already many students at each table. She took her usual seat at the middle of the Slytherin table, Valeria poured herself a nice warm cup of lemon tea, she brought the caffeinated good to her mouth and she could already feel her nerves and previous thoughts melt away. She continued to drink at her tea and as she did so, she began to eat the buttered toast she had made.

And for a while, Valeria sat content – eating her breakfast as she did so, not thinking about anything in particular and she enjoyed that little bit of peace. But then, that peace was ruined by someone taking a seat beside her.

And before she could react, an arm was thrown around her signalling who it was. It was a boy with tousled brown hair, wearing a lazy grin on his face. Evan Rosier. "Lovely morning Val, isn't it? I hope you slept well." He said with a grin. "We could've come down for breakfast together, you should've waited for me," his voice sounded like a whine. 

Valeria rolled her eyes, "I saw you but you were surrounded by your other friends." She had expressed her distaste for the group, many times and she tried not to interact with them. Valeria only offered small talk to the ones who were tolerable and less intimidating.

"Sorry 'bout that, love," Evan smiled sheepishly at her. She watched as he poured himself some water and made a bowl of plain cereal.

"Speaking of," Valeria began and Evan looked at her. "What were you guys talking about? In the Common Room?" The image of them huddled up came to mind and Valeria forced herself to push the thoughts away.

"Oh, it's nothing." Evan shrugged nonchalantly, Valeria noticed as his eyes darted about and never once met hers. "Your pretty little head doesn't need to worry about it."

She found herself getting agitated by his response, "Where's Regulus?"

"He's still in his dorm but he should be down soon, why?"

Valeria shrugged, "just wanted to know if he was a part of your little meeting is all." 

Evan blinked down at her, "you know I said that he's too young to be be needed at them." Valeria pointedly stared at him because they both knew that wasn't the case. As long as you showed the slightest interest or had the right connections, age didn't matter; in some cases it was better that they were younger, they were easier to manipulate then. Valeria knew that Regulus wasn't included as much in their meetings was because Evan was feeing the others excuses, because he too didn't want that for their friend. 

"And you know how things can change," she countered. "He's older now and what if something happened during the summer?" 

At her words Evan averted his eyes and shifted his weight, Valeria was too preoccupied in her thoughts to notice, "nothing happened," he supplied thickly. "And we'll deal with that later, this is not the direction I hoped the conversation would go," he added lightly but Valeria rolled her eyes. 

"If it isn't my favourite couple!" Their heads whipped towards the excited exclamation. Estelle sat opposite Valeria and she sighed in content while clasping her hands together.

"Not a couple," Valeria mumbled as she chewed on her toast, daring not to look at the boy beside her.

The blonde Slytherin 'hmphed' as she frowned placing her chin in her palm. "But what about my OTP?" her voice sounded sincere enough but Valeria knew of the deceit behind it.

"What about Malfoy and Issa?" Valeria shrugged before drinking from her coffee mug. "They're a couple."

Estelle snorted as she too poured herself a cup of tea, "Val, hunny, who are we kidding?" The Montalvo girl agreed with her words. Although the couple came together on their own, there were times when it seemed forced. Estelle and Valeria both knew that their friend could do a whole lot better than the pretentious Malfoy boy. "Girl must be getting it good if she's still with that twat."

Valeria suppressed the urge to laugh and managed a small grin, Evan, on the other hand, wasn't quite as skilled. He choked on his water at the seventh year's sexual innuendo and ended up spraying water everywhere. He dropped the cup back onto the table as he tried to aid his coughing fit, Valeria gently patted him on the back, chuckling slightly and Estelle let out an amused grin.

And with their perfect timing, the said couple approached the table and sat beside the blonde. "What are you guys talking about?" Narcissa asked. Lucius refused to greet anyone as he sat next to her.

"Oh, its nothing," Estelle answered as she raised her mug to her lips, a knowing smile upon them. Narcissa raised an eyebrow as she looked between the three of them but said nothing else on the matter. "Just listening to Rosier drone on about how fit he this Val looks today," She said once she placed the mug back onto the table.

This time, Valeria shot her an incredulous glare before she went into a coughing fit, Evan went to pat her back but she pushed his hand away and scowled at him, he raised his hands in surrender. She drank from the large coffee mug, hiding her burning face from the four around her before slamming it on the table and wiping her mouth with a napkin.

"I couldn't help it," Evan spoke once her coughing subsided, his eyes glued to her as he smirked. "You're just really beautiful," he played with her curls framing her face. 

Valeria opened her mouth to respond but no sound came out, she blinked at Evan, no thoughts were coming to her brain. She was simply opening and closing her mouth like a goldfish while Evan looked at her amused and she could tell that he was refraining from laughing. From her peripheral vision, she noticed Lucius smirk before chuckling slightly; but this was different. It was devoid from any humour and warmth that Evan's held. Her head snapped into his direction.

"There something funny, Malfoy?" She asked with furrowed brows. Instead of stopping like she thought he would, he continued on in spite of her.

"Rosier, you shouldn't compliment her, she is obviously foreign to such a thing," he smirked and Valeria narrowed her eyes, turning hostile. "It's not really surprising either. Considering most of the male population of Hogwarts fear her and the rest hate her," Lucius's grey eyes gleamed mischievously.

"Luci, stop," Narcissa mumbled to him and something in his eyes flashed.

"You should listen to your girlfriend, Luci," Valeria hatefully hissed.

"At least I have one. You've never had a boyfriend or been on a date, never mind gotten any action with somebody," Lucius ignored both warnings from the girls and continued in his usual pompous and airy tone. "Maybe you should stop being such a self-righteous prude, maybe then boys would want you... But then again not." Lucius sat back as he smirked victoriously, he inspected Valeria's face of fury.

There were chuckles that came from Evan beside her, "why are you laughing?!" She seethed; her hands balled into fits.

"I mean he's not wrong. You are self-righteous," he spoke, still seeing the humorous side of it. "And let's face it, you are a prude, Val."

He went to laugh again but Valeria quickly rose from her seat. She raised her hand in the air as she debated striking him but she thought against it, being the bigger person. She huffed as he looked at her confused, "fuck you, Rosier," every syllable of every word she uttered was covered in bitterness. Her emerald eyes glowered her best friend.

"Hey, where are you going?" Evan asked and she only ignored him. Valeria walked away from the table and out of the Great Hall, oblivious to all the stares on her. She breathed a sigh of relief as the heavy doors shut behind her.

The sixth year walked along the corridors, trying to clear her head. She looked outside the windows and noted the warm weather as she continued on. Valeria was still reflecting on Evan's words as well as Lucius's. She wondered if people really thought of her in that way. Valeria didn't usually care what other people thought of her but it was rather difficult in certain instances. It was like she could never satisfy these people. If she respected herself and didn't have sex then she was a prude but if she didn't then she was a slut. It simply wasn't logical. But Valeria had better things to do than to throw herself at people and seek approval.

When she reached her classroom, there was no one else there, so she decided to wait outside until she was given permission to enter. She leaned against the wall in deep concentration, she gazed out the window on the opposite wall, her fingers playing with the bracelets on her wrist. The sun was shining through the various white clouds, it was still relatively warm but Valeria guessed that it wouldn't stay that way for long, judging by the movement of the clouds. Valeria wanted it to rain, for it to pour. She loved it when that happened.

She didn't notice the classroom door open and then her Professor stand before her, it wasn't until she heard her name. "...Miss Montalvo?" Her head whipped to the direction of Professor McGonagall who was peering at her curiously, "are you quite all right?"

"Yeah," Valeria shook her head from her thoughts before turning to her, "just thinking of something is all, professor." She plastered a small smile onto her face.

"Miss Montalvo, are you aware that class doesn't start for a couple more minutes?" Her grey eyes studying one of her best students.

"Fully aware."

"Well, I suppose I might as well just let you in," Valeria followed McGonagall into the familiar transfiguration classroom. The short-haired girl chose the table in the back right corner. She began to get out her transfiguration book and pieces of parchment. She then sat down and stared out front, not thinking about anything, in particular, letting her eyes wander around the classroom.

Minerva glanced up from her work and to the single student in the room, the woman furrowed her brows at the young girl that seemed to have changed so much. It was evident through her physical appearance and also the emotions she held in her face.

"You seem very different from the last time I saw you," Minerva recalled. A day or two before the summer holiday; she had bumped into Valeria and her twin brother, both of whom wore identical grins and were happy. But looking at her now, it was as if that happiness was now devoid. "Is there something bothering you?"

Valeria turned to the woman but Minerva didn't feel she was looking at her but merely passing over her. "It's fine Professor, I'm fine." She shrugged and that was the end of that conversation. The professor turned back to her work but she still wasn't exactly convinced by the young girl's words.

Minerva turned back to her last-minute lesson planning but Valeria's words still echoed at the back of her head. The room fell silent, but it wasn't for long because students then began to file in.

Valeria noticed that as students entered, they came from all houses. It wasn't like their previous where it was only two houses to a class. She guessed that it was probably due to it being NEWT classes.

"Welcome class!" Professor McGonagall introduced once the majority of the class had shown up. Valeria was still sat by herself – her brother was not in this class, Evan had sat with Avery after some hesitation and for once, Valeria was glad that he had chosen to sit with them and not her. The Professor continued her speech, "I hope you have all come prepared with the correct mindset. Your NEWTs are to be taken seriously for these will determine how well you do in your future." She looked at each student, smiling as she saw the true potential within. "You're here because you received an E or above at OWLs and that shows your potential. And you're here because you chose to be here and that shows dedication. Over the next two years—"

Minerva was interrupted from her speech when the door was thrown open, everyone looked and no one was surprised to see that it was the Marauders. Of course, Valeria thought to herself, they had no regards for anything or anyone but themselves.

"Black, Lupin, Pettigrew and Potter! Why am I not surprised?" McGonagall peered at them over her glasses as she approached them.

"Oh, Minnie!" Sirius exclaimed with a teasing grin. "It's so nice to see you again! We're your favourite students so, you'll let us off the hook, right?"

"That is quite presumptuous of you, Mr. Black," Minerva spoke sternly though Valeria noticed a ghost of a smile at her lips and she mentally scoffed. Blatant favouritism. "Now, find your seats, you've wasted enough time already."

Because the four of them were tardy, the only spaces available were already beside someone. Valeria wished that no one came to sit next to her and she made sure to avoid eye contact. But, alas, her wish was not granted as one of the morons had decided to fill the seat next to her.

Valeria immediately tensed, she refused to acknowledge the boy that sat beside her and focused on the front of the classroom. "Valeria Malaria," the obnoxious voice made her turn and she was greeted with a smirking James Potter. She scowled at the name he called her; on the other hand, James had taken a liking to calling her by the name. He had found out about the muggle disease back in third year and decided there was no better way to describe the girl.

The Slytherin girl shot the boy her best glare, "dumb fuck," she mumbled to him as she sent him a sneer, her nose jutting in the air.

"No need to look so excited to share the next hour with me, Malaria," James wiggled his brows.

Valeria sighed deeply; a scowl made its way onto her face as she resisted the urge to hex him until he had to be placed into the hospital wing. "I don't know why I have to suffer because you chose to sit here." James looked at her incredulously, his eyes wide behind his circular glasses, she raised an eyebrow at him.

He managed to splutter out answer, "w-wait, you actually.... y-you thought I actually wanted to sit here? Next to you?!" James chuckled humourlessly. Valeria stared at him and in that moment, he was truly the son of Satan.

"Maybe next time, you'll actually show up on time so you can sit wherever the fuck you want," she glowered, her eyes narrowed darkly.

"Well," the arrogant boy beside her clicked his tongue, seemingly unfazed. "Some of us actually have social lives so we can't be arsed coming to lesson on time unlike..." He didn't need to finish off, for Valeria knew what he was implying.

"You are the most infuriating person I've ever met, by a mile," Valeria hissed as she attempted to turn in her seat and tune into what their Professor was telling the class.

"Thank you," James sent her a playful wink and Valeria nearly gagged.

"Only a prat, like you, would take that as a compliment," she rolled her eyes.

Of course, she would be stuck with the blithering idiot for the next hour, it was just her luck. James Potter just may have been the most insufferable boy in all of Hogwarts. But then the image of Sirius Black popped into her mind. She discreetly turned, he had chosen a seat to the left of her table which made it very possible for the two of them to talk all lesson and distract other people in the class. Valeria came to the conclusion that they were as bad as each other.

But, unlike his best friend, Sirius wouldn't go out of his way to ruin her day. With James, Valeria felt her blood always boiling and random bursts of anger whenever he was around — her mood significantly dropping. He really made her wish that he would get trampled by centaurs, or pecked to death by Hippogriffs or torn apart by giants. James always left her wishing that he would die the most painful and creative death.

"Right," Professor McGonagall continued and Valeria was brought away from her graphic reverie concerning the devil child himself. "Now that you have all settled; I want you to know that these will be your seats for the rest of the year and there will be no arrangements," she told her class sternly.

A look of revulsion was present upon Valeria's face. A whole year with James Potter, she would much rather swim in the Black Lake naked. She raised up her hand, Minerva noticed and had a suspicion on what her query would be. "Yes, Miss Montalvo?"

"Is there any way that I could be seated with anyone else? I really don't see myself getting along with the likes of him," Valeria plastered on a face of innocence as she pleaded with the Professor.

"Yeah!" James chimed in from beside and Valeria resisted the urge to roll her eyes. "For once I agree. Minnie, I hate to say it but this-" he gestured between them, "it's just not gonna work out."

Many students in the room chuckled at his words while Valeria scowled. Minerva pursed her lips as she looked at her two conflicting students. "Mr. Potter, Miss. Montalvo, I'm afraid I'm going to have object to your requests." And at her words both of their faces fell, her eyes fell onto James. "I know that there are many things that Miss. Montalvo can teach you."

"Yeah, like the Dark Arts and Unforgivable Curses and how to kill muggleborns," James mumbled under his breath but Valeria heard. She made no movement but bit hard on her tongue in order to stop herself from blurting something out, she would have to pay repercussions for.

"Is that clear?" Minerva looked to the pair of them and they reluctantly agreed. "Now let's move on," she walked over to her chalkboard and wrote the title of her lesson. "Today we'll be making a start on... Conjuring Spells." And at that, there was scratching on parchment as the students prepared to delve into the lesson.


	6. 05. alohomora

MOST OF VALERIA'S DAY WAS PRETTY UNEVENTFUL –

after withstanding James Potter's incessant annoyance throughout the lesson, she more or less bolted out of the room and to her DADA classroom. Ever since her encounter at breakfast, Valeria had been in a foul mood all day. And its backlash had caused her to abuse her prefect power and to excessively take house points from students in other houses; she would've even taken some from Slytherin if it wasn't for Regulus who was with her at the time. Valeria had yet to talk to Evan, she had resulted in being petty and ignoring him whenever he attempted to talk to her.

She was currently walking with Regulus and Snape. After her charms lesson, she met the two of them in the common room and they headed to the Prefect meeting. When they arrived, there were already students waiting along with the heads of houses. Each prefect sat with members of their house they waited for the meeting to begin.

Once everyone had arrived, the Head boy and girl stood and took their place at the front of the room. Zaria Macmillian, the Head girl ( a Hufflepuff ) firstly spoke. "This meeting won't take as long, we'll mainly be going over your work schedules for this term..."

Lucius then began to hand out the schedules to everyone in the room, Valeria didn't spare him a glance as he shoved the parchment into her hands. Valeria's eyes scanned the words, she would be patrolling with Snape on the first floor. Valeria didn't complain, it could've been a lot worse. Her eyes fell onto Regulus who was still reading the parchment, "who are you with?"

Regulus didn't reply for a minute, Valeria watched as he folded his parchment and tucked it into his cloak, "Lupin on the fifth floor," he had almost spit out the words, disgust sprang on his delicate features, his cold eyes landed on the said Gryffindor who was busy chatting with Lily on the other side of the room.

There was a snort that came from the other side of Regulus, they both turned to Snape who had amusement written all over his face. They looked at him expectantly, "good luck with him."

Valeria turned back to sneak a glance at the Gryffindor prefect, on the outside he seemed so innocent and humbled but she knew better to believe this façade. After all, no one was innocent. She turned back to the two Slytherins, "he can't be that bad compared to the others. He wouldn't be prefect otherwise."

Regulus went to agree with her but Snape beat him to it, "no, he's just perfected the pretence." He sneered at the unknowing Gryffindor.

The students were silenced and Macmillian continued, she moved onto the topic of troubling students. The Prewett twins and the Marauders were mentioned and highlighted and when it was, all eyes fell onto Lupin; he blushed and smiled sheepishly, Valeria rolled her eyes at him.

Soon enough the meeting was disbanded and everyone filed out the room. Valeria walked with Regulus, their footsteps echoed on the ground. This was the first time she'd been alone with him all day and as she thought back to her conversation with Evan that morning, now was the chance she could ask him. 

"Reg, I've been meaning to ask," she began hesitantly. "Has anything happened recently, like have you been approached by... y'know..." She trailed off. 

His silver eyes darted to her, and he pursed his lips. "You want to know if I've joined him," he said simply. Valeria nodded. Regulus sighed and continued, "no, I haven't. But it's inevitable, isn't it? Mother's already started hinting at things."

Valeria took note of his glum expression and stopped walking, prompting Regulus to do the same. "Don't say that, I'm not going to let you get forced into forced something!" She exclaimed, he looked at her in a bored manner, they had already gone over this too many times, there was no way to save him from his destiny. 

"Look, I get that anything your parents say goes, and that you're basically set to take the mark when you finish school because your fucked up brother left all of this to you. But for fuck's sake Reg, tell me that you really don't want to go through this," she pleaded, because then she could actually help him. 

Silence passed through them, Regulus stared at the ground, his hands balled into fists at his side and his jaw clenched. And when he finally spoke, his voice was barely above a whisper, "I can't... I can't afford to say such things," his voice faltered. Valeria nearly screamed at his stubbornness, he turned and continued walking. She had no choice but to follow after him, the pair walking together wordlessly. 

When they reached the Great Hall it was loud and busy as many students were already seated. And before she knew it, Valeria had stopped walking. Regulus was too absorbed in his thoughts to notice she'd stopped and continued to the table. She stared at them, Estelle and Narcissa were sat with Lucius who'd just joined them. And close to them sat the others and she could see the usual lazy grin of Evan as he conversed with Mulciber. Looking at them, Valeria realised that in no way was she going to sit with them today, especially after breakfast. She sighed as she ran her hand through her already tangled hair, she debated whether she should just skip dinner altogether and head to the common room but she was stopped before she could try.

"And why are you stood here like an idiot?" Valeria looked to her brother who stood before her with an amused grin.

Valeria playfully rolled her eyes and let out an exaggerated sigh, "can I sit with you?" She asked him and her eyes once more landed on the Slytherin table. Kairi shot her a questioning look before following her gaze and his eyes landed on Evan Rosier.

"Sure you can, Ria," Kairi smirked, he proceeded to drag her over to the Ravenclaw table. Over the years, Valeria had sat at the Ravenclaw table to eat with her brother only a handful of times. It was a constant reminder of the house she should've been in ( up until a certain point ) and where she could've been. And so she mainly had Kairi sit with her at the end of the Slytherin table.

Kairi showed her to his seat and she sat opposite him. For once, Kairi wasn't surrounded his usual fan club, he was sat next to Dexter Hornett.

Valeria eyed the ash-haired boy warily before sitting opposite her brother. She ignored him as she began to serve her plate of food but she could still feel his eyes on him and Valeria squirmed under his gaze. "So," Kairi began to fill the silence. "I heard you almost hit Rosier this morning," Kairi shook his head amusedly as he looked to his sister.

"Oh, believe me, I wish did," Valeria recalled him laughing at her and siding with Malfoy of all people. She scoffed as she continued, "he bloody deserves it."

"Who deserves what?" A third voice had entered the conversation. The twins looked up as a girl stood beside Kairi with a curious smile. Kairi then grinned at the girl while Valeria remained impassive as she stared at the interruption. The girl then proceeded to sit beside Kairi.

Valeria studied her – she was sure that she had never seen the girl in all her time at Hogwarts. She was rather petite and slim, she had coffee coloured skin that complimented her frizzy hair and brown eyes that looked at her from behind black-rimmed glasses. It took a while for Valeria to notice that she held her wand in the bun that sat on her head, she curiously raised her brow. The girl had a book tucked under her arm which she placed it on the table as she gathered her food.

"Evan Rosier deserved a good smacking," Valeria finally drawled. "I'm sorry, but who are you?" She asked, looking between her and her brother.

The girl grinned and stuck out her hand for Valeria to shake, "Olympia Easton, nice to meet you." She kept a warm smile on her face regardless of the fact that the two of them had been going to school together for the past five years, regardless of the fact that they were both prefects and that they sat next to each other in Divination once in third year.

Valeria stared at her hand before disregarding it and picking up her fork, delicately eating some of her spaghetti. The two Ravenclaws opposite the Slytherin shared a look and Kairi shook his head softly, "don't worry about it Ollie, its that time of the month for her," he whispered not-so-quietly, attempting to cover his mouth with his hand. Valeria glared at her brother and kicked his shins from under the table. Kairi hissed and he hand reached down to his leg, "she's also quite abusive." Olympia simply giggled as she watched the exchanged between the two.

"So, Rosier..." Kairi began, looking back to Valeria once they had settled down. "What did he do?"

"He sided with Malfoy, that absolute toad!" Valeria exclaimed, a glare settling over her face. She lowered her voice and leaned in closer as she continued, "he called me a bloody self-righteous prude! And then Evan laughed about it in my face?!" She sat back in her seat, a scowl on her face. She looked back to Kairi and narrowed her eyes, "don't even," she spoke through gritted teeth as he threatened to laugh.

"Why not?" Kairi pouted. "I'm your brother, I should be getting these privileges." He ran a hand through his hair as he smirked at her, Valeria rolled her eyes.

"What did you do?" Valeria looked to Olympia who was watching her curiously. The Slytherin wondered why she was even interested, considering it was a conversation between her and her brother. But Valeria decided to entertain her and let her think she was being friendly enough.

"Well, I was going to hit him. And Merlin I wanted to," Valeria explained and once again remembering the familiar rush. "But I only told him to fuck off."

At her words, Kairi spluttered as he blinked at his sister, "you mean to tell me that you, a snarky quick-witted Slytherin only responded with a measly 'fuck you'?" Valeria narrowed her eyes at him. "I'm beyond disappointed in you, Ria," Kairi tutted as he shook his head, going back to his food.

Valeria huffed at him, he wasn't really being much help, she may as well have gone to the common room. "Well, I was pissed off. I didn't really want to say or do anything that I would later on regret," she played with her fork that now resided on her empty plate.

Kairi raised a brow at her, "you would've regretted hitting him?" He wasn't entirely convinced by that.

"No, of course not!" Valeria shot him an unimpressed look. "It's just... I-I would've... You know what? Never mind just forget it!" She waved the matter off in frustration.

The table then cleared of all the dinner and the plates, and in its place dessert was served. Varying from triple-decker fudge cake to cookie-dough ice-cream, sweet smelling aroma infiltrated the air. Subconsciously, a smile appeared on Valeria's face. She reached for large chocolate cookies, placing them in a bowl with strawberry flavoured ice-cream.

"Anyway," Kairi started as he too began to eat his dessert which consisted of Angel cake with cream. "Back to the whole prude thing, why are you so mad over what they say about you?" Kairi was confused, for as long as he could remember, Valeria never cared about what other people thought about her unless it was himself or their parents. Over their years, people have said plenty about her behind her back or to her face and she never cared then, he wondered why this was any different.

"Because!" Valeria exclaimed, "Malfoy is a nonce!" She rubbed at her head in frustration. "Bloody hell, he's maybe even worse than Potter," she spat and the pair of them looked in the direction of the said boy.

He was sat at the Gryffindor table, alongside Sirius Black. Laughing as he balanced a metal spoon on his nose, he flailed his arms about ━ no doubt showing off to those around him. Kairi turned back to his sister who was busy scowling, "never mind, Potter is definitely a lot worse."

Kairi chuckled at his sister's words before his face turned serious once more. "Listen, Val. I know you're not a prude and so do you, so don't listen to what those gits say. Okay?" He sent her a reassuring smile and Valeria returned it and she agreed with him.

And that was the last they spoke about it, the twins moved onto lighter topics concerning how their days went and such. When they had finished they rose from their seats and made their way out of the Great Hall. By now, many other students were filing out, all going to their common rooms or elsewhere.

Kairi was kind enough to walk her to the dungeons outside the Slytherin common room, insisting that he didn't want her to walk alone. Valeria smiled at the gesture, a warmness settling in her stomach. It was at times such as these where she was glad that she was still on good terms with her brother, she knew of other siblings in the castle where their bonds were broken. She bid her brother goodnight before disappearing through the stone wall.

Once through, Valeria scanned the common room. It was quite busy, people conversing in groups but she managed to somehow spot Evan Rosier by the emerald fire sat immersed in a book he had in his lap. She couldn't find Estelle or Narcissa so she concluded that were either in their dormitories or still in the Great Hall with Lucius ━ her face turned sour just thinking about it. She didn't know what possessed her, but Valeria started making her way towards the couch where Evan was seated.

He didn't acknowledge her, Valeria didn't know whether he was ignoring her or if he was genuinely concentrated on what he was reading. She sat there for a minute, debating whether she should talk to him or not.

"Evan," Valeria finally spoke, her voice loud enough to make his head turn. At her voice, the brown-haired boy looked at her, surprised and relief washed over his face.

Evan shut his book before fully turning to face her, the title of the book he was reading, in the dim lighting she was able to make out the words ━ The Path of the Dark Arts. The words made her heart stop and she went rigid. That was the first and most definitely the last she read such a book consisting of dark and inhumane content.

"Hello?! Val, are you even listening?!" Evan cried as he waved his hand over her face dramatically and effectively pulled the out of her nefarious thoughts. Valeria rolled her eyes and swatted his hand away. "And she's back," he retorted with a snort. "So, what can I assist you with?" He quizzed with a small smirk pulling at his lips.

Valeria narrowed her eyes, her stubbornness becoming evident, "I'm here for my apology." She remembered why she even came up to him in the first place.

Evan let out a breathy laugh but he answered anyway, "I'm sorry for siding with Malfoy and calling you a prude when you're not. You can hit me if you'd like, I know you were going to. And I deserve it," he spoke in a sincere tone.

Valeria smiled softly at the boy but then realised she was doing so and her face hardened, "did someone tell you to say that?" She asked suspiciously, her brows furrowed.

"Not exactly," he responded. "Estelle was rather... enlightening about the whole thing and forced me to apologise to you."

"So if she didn't," Valeria began slowly and Evan knew where this was going. "You wouldn't have said you were sorry," she mumbled, slightly glaring at him.

"No, not at all," Evan quickly shook his head. He moved closer and put a reassuring hand on hers which rested on her knees. "I just think it would've taken me longer to do so."

Valeria rolled her eyes, "boys and your fucking pride," Evan smiled at her cheekily. She smiled as she continued, "I suppose I could forgive you. But you side with Malfoy again and I will hex you," she gave him a pointed stare.

He didn't say anything at first, he only put a comforting arm around her and dropped his lips to her ear, "you don't need to worry, babe." Valeria suppressed a sigh and shook her head at his obvious flattery.

"So, where are the others?" Valeria asked to change the subject.

"They're in the dorm," Evan replied, "do you want to go see them?"

"Nah, it's fine," Valeria waved it off. "I have prefect duties in a while anyway."

Another silence settled over them, Valeria twiddled with her fingers, she couldn't help but let her eyes fall onto the haunting book that sat on Evan's lap. Her skin crawled and there was a queasy feeling in her stomach whenever it came into her view, her breath hitched an she quickly averted her eyes as if it would burn her if she looked any longer. And she continued to carry out these actions until she could no longer, it was weighing her down.

"Is that why you didn't write to me all summer?" Valeria blurted; her gaze fixated on his Dark Arts book. "You were too busy practising," she spit the words out like they were venom on her tongue.

At her words, Evan stilled; there was a cold and distant expression that took over his previous warmness. He took his eyes from her and onto the roaring green fire before them, removing his arm from around her. When he didn't respond the brunette could feel her irritation rise, "are you going to answer me then, Rosier?" Her glare settled on the side of his face.

After several silent seconds passed them, Evan sighed deeply and turned to the inquisitive girl beside him, Valeria watched him with an expectant look as he struggled with what to start with. "D-do you know the man that I've told you about? The man that my parents share the same beliefs with?" Valeria nodded slowly as she recalled the times Evan told her of this mysterious man who held meetings and spoke of a better time for wizards. She herself didn't know who he was and neither did Evan but she did know that he was behind all the muggle attacks and the muggleborn killings.

"W-well my parents introduced... they introduced me to him over the summer," he spoke in a hushed tone. Warily glancing around him to make sure that no one was paying attention to their words.

"And?" Valeria pestered him, she needed to know more.

"And he told me more of the Dark Arts. He told me that when the time came, he would need an army, an army to fight against what's right a-and-"

"Do you believe that he's doing is right?" Valeria interrupted. "He's murdering innocent people! And for what? A little power. Even you must know that's absurd!" She exclaimed, not caring if anyone heard at this point.

"Y-yes, yes I know!" Evan whispered in a hushed voice, "he's a psychopath." With that he focused his gaze back onto the fire as if replaying the moments he had spent time with this man. "But..."

At his words. Valeria's breath hitched. Was he seriously justifying what this man was doing? She let out a shaky breath and Evan continued. "he is changing the wizarding world for the better."

Valeria scoffed, "yeah I can definitely see that happening." She looked at Evan and stopped when she realised that he was being serious. "Y-you don't actually believe that? Do you?" She asked her voice soft.

Evan's jaw clenched and unclenched and he ran a hand through his hair in frustration. As if something had just clicked in his head, he turned to Valeria, a thunderous expression masked his face. One that she had never had been on the receiving end of ━ until now. "I don't get what the big deal is," he began, his voice low and stoic. "I know you used to think the same thing."

Valeria stopped, her face paled and her heart beat rapidly thumped against her chest. There was no possible way that he could know. She was certain that no one knew; it was a secret she vowed to bring to her grave. Valeria found herself unable to speak, "I-I... how did you.... when..."

"You're not gonna deny it, huh?" Evan asked with a knowing smirk and Valeria glared at him. She had walked into a trap, and now Evan knew of the things she no longer believed to be right.

But there was one question that was burning in her mind, once the thought had appeared she tried to push it away. There was no way he could've found out that way. She refused to believe it. "H-how do you know?" She found herself asking tentatively, after a moment of silence between them.

Evan looked at her pointedly, his warm brown eyes fixed onto her, as if he knew there could only be one answer. Valeria sat forward in the soft couch, she brought her head to her hands and she groaned. The beating at her chest hadn't lessened, if anything, it had only increased. The sole revelation had caused the young girl to become rigid and tense, her mind swirled with endless questions and scenarios. The questions she had in mind often crept to the dark abyss in her mind but then she would close them off before they got too far.

The two sixth years sat in a uncomfortable awkwardness, Valeria was far to busy processing what Evan told her ━ or hadn't. The said boy was waiting for her to pose the imminent question. It took her a while but Valeria slowly lifted her head, she stared at the fire, her face impassive and devoid of any emotion.

"Tom," was all she said and Evan sucked in a breath. There was a pregnant pause. "It's him isn't it?"

At her words, a familiar image flashed into his mind. Heinous, Scarlet eyes that were permanently ingrained in his memory. His head felt heavy as he reluctantly nodded and he took note of her defeated expression. She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and swallowed harshly. She rose from the couch, she muttered a goodbye to Evan before turning away. The common room was still quite full as people stood or sat around the large room.

Valeria looked to the ground as she avoided her peers while trying to escape to the security of her dorm room. Unfortunately before she could turn to the dormitories, someone had grabbed a hold of her sleeve. She turned to come face to face with someone she least expected ━ Severus Snape.

The boy stopped and stared at her curiously, his calculating eyes flicking over her face. "Are you okay?" Those three simple words were enough to set Valeria off in waterworks but she couldn't, her reputation and pride were holding her back.

"Just fine," she managed to pull a false pretence. She furrowed her brows at him, "was there something you needed, Snape?"

There was a certain dullness in Valeria's face but Severus decided not to press further, "we should probably start our prefect duties now."

She refrained from rolling her eyes as she nodded ━ prefect duties was the last thing the Slytherin felt like doing right now. All she wanted was go into the privacy of her dorm and reflect upon the terrible life she led, for various reasons. But for now that would have to wait for she followed Severus Snape out of the Slytherin common room.


	7. 06. revelio

VALERIA STILL COULDN'T QUITE COME TO TERMS WITH THE NEW INFORMATION EVAN TOLD HER.

Even as she silently walked the path of the seventh floor alongside Severus Snape in total silence. Every so often she would side eye the black-haired boy. She knew that he was involved with Evan and the other Slytherin boys, most of the school knew of it. She wondered if he knew that Tom was the heart of all this or if he was just following blindly.

In her first year, Valeria crossed paths with the wizard, a boy who held such potential and ambition. When she first sat at his table in the library, he was a sixth year prefect. Valeria was blinded by his handsomeness, as was most of the female population at the time. Tom Riddle was beautiful. His dark hair was parted neatly on his head, it contrasted largely to his pale, delicate skin. His jaw was sharp and cheeks slightly hollow and his lips were a soft pink. His eyes were icy blue, and when he looked at you, he was penetrating into your soul. Valeria could shamefully admit that she too had succumbed and had fallen for his striking good looks. It was bittersweet really, that a boy with a face of an angel had such murderous and disastrous intentions.

From the moment he performed Legilimency on the first year, he'd taken an interest to her. Tom Riddle was the only person, other than her family members who knew of her secret ( at the time ). Valeria never knew how the inquisitive boy had come to the realisation but she never questioned it. And so, whenever they had spare time, Tom devoted himself to training her ( for his own selfish reasons and gain ). And slowly, using his manipulative ways and his silver tongue of persuasion, he had pulled her into the depths of darkness and she was a long way away from the light.

Valeria's thoughts drifted back to the time when Tom had taught her dark spells and he had eventually persuaded to read a book of the Dark Arts. She remembered her skin crawling, the constant need for her to throw up whenever her grazed across the disturbed sentences. She remembered wanting to give up and turn away but Tom refused to let her until she had mastered every spell and incantation.

Valeria could understand the craving and the enticement to the Dark Arts ━ as much as she would hate to admit it ━ she could feel it getting easier to read such such things and involve herself with it. She felt herself subsiding in a pit of darkness but there was no one on the other side to pull her out. And the only light she felt that was pulling her out from the succumbed darkness was her brother; he helped in ways he didn't even realise.

Ever since Tom graduated from Hogwarts, she was yet to receive a letter from him ━ she had written a couple but quickly gave up when received none back. Valeria now realised that he was too busy trying to take over the world to sit down and write to her.

They had now concluded their rounds as Prefects, they wordlessly turned and began on the way they came. Valeria distracted herself by focusing on the ground. At the start of the night, Severus tried hard to start conversations, he could tell that things were slightly off with his fellow prefect. But whenever he tried to speak to her, she would only give one-worded answers or she wouldn't at all. He quickly got the hint and they walked in silence ever since.

Valeria had somewhat felt bad on behalf of her actions, regardless of if she liked him or not ━ he didn't deserve it. He was only trying to lighten the situation, but if only he knew of the things that were running in her mind.

They were almost back at their common room when they had bumped into a Gryffindor. Valeria recognised him as a troublesome third year. Collin Fweeder. From what she had heard, he was certainly going down the path of the renowned Prewett twins and the highly celebrated Marauders ━ Hogwarts's pranksters.

There was one incident, last year where the thirteen-year-old had managed to sneak a modified dung bomb into the Staff Room. All of the Professors were left with a horrible stench on their robes for the rest of the day and to make matters worse, as the day progressed, the stink worsened. The students couldn't risk staying in the Great Hall for dinner with all their Professors smelling of farts and all sorts of nastiness.

The two prefects stopped the young blond who seemed that he had been running, he looked up at them both, panting slightly and red in the face. "Why are you roaming the halls at this hour?" Snape demanded, a hint of irritation upon his features.

Due to the stance, Severus thought to be intimidating, he was taken aback when the Collin's response was a light smirk. "Ah, we meet again Snivellus. It looks like you still haven't washed out your greasy hair," he laughed at his own joke.

At his words, Severus's eyes bulged in annoyance as his face tensed. He took a threatening step closer to Collin, "why you little━"

Before he could say anything else, Valeria placed a hand on his forearm and stepped before him. "Look, as your superiors you have a right to answer and not come up with any smart remarks," she spoke in a bored manner.

The Gryffindor scrunched up his face, "so you think that just because you're prefects, you're better than me?"

"Yes," Valeria replied flatly and the boy scoffed.

"You Slytherins make me sick. Merlin, I'm glad I'm not in your house otherwise I would've been forced to join the Death Eaters, like you!" he spat.

Valeria breathed heavily through her nose; she felt her anger ring throughout her body but she refused to let it show. She was already in a bad enough mood from her conversation with Evan and stupid third years weren't exactly making it better. "Listen here you brat, that's twenty points from Gryffindor, now tell us why you're not in your common room or you'll lose more."

He glared at the sixth year and Valeria matched his glare, peering down at him. He finally relented with a sigh, "I was just coming from my friend's common room. Happy now?"

He scoffed and Valeria rolled her eyes, "you can go now."

The third year fixed his robes before shooting a glare at the elder students, "I'll see you around," he trailed off with a smirk, "Death Eaters." And he briskly walked away, in the direction of his own common room.

Valeria tensed but fortunately, it went unnoticeable. However, Severus wasn't as skilled in that area as he scowled at the retreating figure. He mumbled incoherent words to himself and after what seemed to be a mental debate he turned to chase after the boy. Valeria mentally groaned, Oh Merlin! Why did I get stuck with such an idiot? The brunette reluctantly turned and held out an arm and gripped onto his school robes. "Snape, don't be a moron," she chided. "He just wanted a reaction out of you, he's not worth it."

Valeria didn't stop to wait for his senses to come back to him and already moved on. Only a few seconds later, did she hear his footsteps following. And like they had done for the majority of the night, they kept to themselves, thoughts swirling about their heads. Tonight's Prefect duty had been relatively short due there hardly being any misconduct ( disregarding the mishap moments ago ). Valeria guessed that if she went back to the dorm now, the three other girls would still be awake, gossiping and giggling. That was something, she really didn't want to experience; so, instead of going to the dungeons, she approached the ever-changing, stone staircase.

"Where are you going?" Severus's voice cried out, he watched his fellow Prefect avoid the dungeons and quickly walk up the steps to Merlin-knows where.

Valeria continued to walk on as she replied, "for a walk!" She didn't care to elaborate on her plans and Severus didn't press on, he shrugged before walking to the dungeons. 

"Think of all the pranks we could get away with!" There was a loud an obnoxious laugh that filled the corridor.

"No one will be able to touch us," another voice added. This one was much cooler and relaxed compared to the elated and eccentric one prior.

"Merlin! This is going to be perfect. And there's a hundred and thirty percent chance of it being a success, now that we have this genius piece of invention."

"A hundred and thirty percent chance of working? But that's impossible!" A third voice spluttered, it was squeaky and submissive.

"Oh Wormtail!" The same exited voice exclaimed. "All the more likely it's going to succeed, what do you think, Moony?"

"I think you should leave me out of this," the sensible voice reasoned, the tall and lanky boy raised his hands in surrender.

"When will you ever learn? You my friend, are a major role in all of this, think of it as an honour. Our legacy will be remembered, many years after we part with this place.

"Don't you think its a bit early to be doing pranks this early in the year? Shouldn't we wait a while?" He asked as the voice of reason. But alas, his questions fell on deaf ears.

On the third floor, walked four boys, the pronounced Marauders. After a year of altering and designing and charming a piece of parchment paper ━ they now held the greatest invention to aid them in future pranks and of course, with Remus's 'furry little problem'. It was fully loaded with secret passages throughout the school that were yet to be discovered. The map presented everyone within the castle at every second of each day. And they had charmed it, so if they were to ever lose the map, no one else could ever open it, it would just seem like a silly old parchment paper.

"Oh look!" James exclaimed, peering down to the map. "There's Lily! Do you think she's sleeping already?" He grinned at the footsteps that were marked with Lily's name.

Sirius scrunched up his face in disgust as he looked to his best mate, "Prongs, don't be a pervert. We didn't make the map so you could stalk Lily and find new ways to win her over."

"But it could help, right?" James suggested with a hopeful glance. Sirius shared a look with Peter and Remus before shaking his head in a disappointedly. 

Sirius let out a loud sigh, "never mind about that. We have much more pressing matters to get to," James then brought his attention away from the map and to his friends with a familiar mischievous gleam in his hazel coloured eyes.

"Are you guys sure that there is no one that we could potential bump into at any moment?" Remus asked cautiously. It was their first night out without James's invisibility cloak, even though they had the map, it was still highly risky.

"Nah, Moony. We're good, there's no need to worry," James told him as he looked for any footsteps nearby.

"See, you're just being paranoid for no reason."

Remus rolled his eyes at Sirius, there was always a reason with these lot. "I'm sorry Padfoot but if I don't-"

"Oh," Peter, who was walking ahead the rest of the boys seemed to have stumbled when he had collided after someone after rounding the corner. Immediately all four boys froze, "I'm so sorry..." Peter began but he trailed off when he saw who he had bumped into.

Valeria Montalvo stood before him; she stood frozen in shock, her eyes appeared red and puffy under the streaks of light from the moon ━ but that was impossible Valeria never cried. The Slytherin had gotten over her initial shock as she furiously wiped at her eyes; a scowl set onto her features but it was too late, the four boys had taken notice of her wet eyes. Her scowl only hardened when her eyes landed on his three usual accomplices that stood behind him. A couple of seconds passed and no one from either party spoke.

The Slytherin took in each of their faces. Peter looked beyond petrified as he nervously gulped ( but then again, when did he not ), Remus tried to remain calm and composed but Valeria could tell he was tense from the way his eyes kept darting about, Sirius looked stunned but he quickly recovered as he looked at her with calculating eyes and James, well, he looked like a deer caught in headlights.

This was the first time that she had seen the group of boys not looking so smug and pleased with themselves. For once, they didn't have that dumb superior radiating from them and for once they were the vulnerable ones. The bandit of four were confused, they had always seen the standoffish prefect as impassive and icy. James had never thought that she was capable of contorting her face in a way that wasn't a glare or a sly smirk and so when he saw tears reflecting in her eyes, he was more than surprised. There was also a slight stir within him but he quickly dismissed it ━ she was probably crying over something trivial.

Valeria's cold eyes scanned the parchment that James held onto tightly in his hands and Valeria furrowed her brows as she wondered what was so important about it. James noticed and followed her line of vision, hastily but also discreetly he tucked it into his cloak. Of course, Valeria saw all of this and it raised her suspicion.

"What are you doing wandering about?" Valeria finally asked, lazily and her eyes lingered on James a fraction longer.

She watched as the boys shared looks, as if communicating with one another before turning back to her, "what were you doing wandering about?" Sirius asked, a smirk pulling at his lips.

Valeria pursed her lips and narrowed her brows at the smug boy, "that's none of your business," she hissed.

James raised his brows at her quick and defensive response, "you might wanna be careful with how you react. Someone might think you're up to no good." The annoying Gryffindor ran a hand through his hair, his eyes assessing the Slytherin's every move.

Valeria scoffed; "Actually I'm prefect and therefore I have a right to be out of bed right now. You, on the other hand..." She trailed off as she gave three of them a pointed stare, letting the answer linger in the air. "With the exception of Lupin of course, but I fail to see why he would drag you..." Valeria paused as she looked for the correct term, "moronic simpletons with him."

Sirius stepped closer to her, pushing Peter out of the way, "well, I'd rather be a moronic simpleton than a Slytherin bitch."

Valeria winced the smallest fraction but she managed to hide it well, "wow," she spoke wryly. "Like I haven't been called worse."

Sirius only smirked down at her before leaning down and placing his lips to her ear, Valeria tensed as his soft lips tickled the stray hairs by her ear, "how's this for an insult," he began and Valeria found herself clenching her jaw and her hands balled into fists but she refused to move, her legs firmly stuck to her spot. "You're a Slytherin supremacist, a little sadistic piglet who is happy about all the muggleborn killings because you are one of them."

At his words, Valeria didn't respond. She squeezed her eyes shut and she did so until she felt it was safe to open them once more. Sirius saw it her face, the way her eyes dulled as they flicked towards the ground. A frown appeared and her shoulders sagged, slightly. But her face returned back to her defensive, intimidating stance just as quickly that it left Sirius wondering if he had imagined it all. Her eyes landed Sirius, a triumphant smirk at his lips, it only faltered slightly when he took note of her angered state. Her jaw was clench so hard, he wondered if her teeth would break.

It was no surprise to her that many people had thought that Valeria thought she was a death eater; she heard the rumours that circled around the castle but no one had ever said it to her face. She hated how it affected her, people always seemed to judge simply due to the colour of her uniform and she never had anyone to talk to about it because he simply wouldn't understand. Just because she was a Slytherin and she enjoyed being in her house, it didn't mean that she would join them ━ she wouldn't ever.

Her gaze snapped up to his and she spoke lowly, "I hope you die." And now it was Sirius's time to still. "A very painful death at which you are begging for your life but I-they won't listen and you die wishing the agony would be over but it won't and the life will slowly disappear from your eyes," There was distinctive anger in her eyes as Sirius watched her, horrified. "I may be sadist, but only if you're the one in pain at my hand, pathetic blood-traitor."

Valeria's head whipped to those who were watching the two curiously, she gave them one last glare before stalking off.

They watched her walk away, Sirius with a new sense of caution. "What the bloody hell was that?!" Sirius exclaimed once they made sure she that she was out of ear shot. "Prongs, you said there was no one about!" Sirius slapped him upside the head.

"There wasn't, I swear!" He began to protest but the rest only rolled their eyes.

"She's crazy, I'm telling you," Sirius muttered but his friends still happened to pick on it and they wondered what hateful words they had exchanged this time.

"What did she say anyway?" James asked curiously.

Sirius paused as he recalled the girl's venomous words, "just some bat shit," Sirius waved it off but deep down, the words she uttered still stung. There was only one person who could say such words was his cold-hearted, abusive mother. Walburga Black. She was probably the only probably the person he hated more than Voldemort himself.

Growing up at Grimmuald place was torture – figuratively and also literally. Orion and Walburga black were heartless, they were perfectionists, elitists that held high Pure-blood views. And when Sirius was placed into Gryffindor, he immediately put shame to the Black name, he was called a blood-traitor by all of the Slytherins. And it got even worse he associated himself with other blood-traitors, half-bloods and muggleborns. But Sirius couldn't have been happier, Hogwarts became his home and was finally free to be himself.

Whenever he had to return home during the holidays, he locked himself in his room. And much to his parents' resentment he had decorated his room that went against everything that his parents stood for. His walls were plastered with posters of quidditch players and indecent muggle girls on motorcycles ━ it wasn't massive but it indeed was a act of rebellion. His younger brother, Regulus, was the perfect example of a stuck-up child who obeyed their every word. When Regulus joined Hogwarts the year after, Sirius held the small hope that he would follow and also be placed into Gryffindor but it was all diminished when the sorting hat yelled out Slytherin. Like his parents, he was disgusted at Sirius, he didn't dare deter from their parent's ideals so the little bond that was left between the two brothers was broken. Regulus didn't acknowledge his brother and when he did, it was to express his mere distaste and tell his brother how much of a disgrace he was.

"Lets just go and get this over and done with, yeah?" Without waiting for an answer, Sirius walked ahead as he led the way. The rest of the boys shared a look before following him.

James took the map out once more, he searched for a specific name, he furrowed his brows when it landed onto Valeria Montalvo. Regardless of what his friends told him; he knew what he saw. He had made sure the coast was clear and that there was no one there, and there wasn't. But when Peter had bumped into Valeria he looked back to the map and saw her name appear onto the map. Literally, it faded in from nowhere, he still couldn't believe it. The map was fool proof, or at least it was supposed to be but there was no way that she could've known about the map and how to beat it. James knew there was something suspicious going on with her character and now Valeria had intrigued him. He had to find out, whatever it was that she was hiding.


End file.
